Quad 9L Active Desktop Loudspeaker (Playback 30)

Desktop Sound That Satisfies

FEATURES

Quad 9L Active System technical highlights:

• Features 1-inch fabric dome tweeter and 3.94-inch Kevlar mid-bass driver, both as developed for Quad’s higher-end L-series loudspeakers.
  
• Robust bass-reflex speaker cabinets with dual rear-firing ports.
  
• Each speaker features a high-quality, 60-watt built-in amplifier.
  
• Offered in a variety of exquisite “pearlescent metallic piano hi-gloss” finishes with names such as: Deep Black, Grey Tungsten, Purple Lilac, Blue Sky, Red Ruby, Pink Blush, Yellow Moon, and Yellow Green.
  
• Overall fit and finish of the product are exceptionally high (as denoted by the fact that the 9L Active manual comes packed with a set of white fabric gloves meant to help keep fingerprints off the glass-smooth surfaces of the speaker cabinets).
  
• Supports three audio inputs: one digital audio input via a rear panel USB port, one analog audio input via rear panel stereo RCA jacks, and one analog audio input via front panel 3.5mm mini-jack.
  
• Optional tilt-back desktop/tabletop stands.
  
• Left-channel unit serves as the “Master Speaker”, housing all audio input jacks, an analog audio output to drive the right channel speaker and all remote control receiver electronics.
  
• Right-channel unit serves as a self-powered “Slave Speaker” that receives analog audio inputs from the “Master Speaker”.
  
• Comes with a small four-button remote that provides volume up/down functions, USB/analog input switching, and a mute function.
  

SONIC CHARACTER

As I mentioned above, the Quad 9L Active system has deliberately been given what I would characterize as “desktop friendly” voicing. In order for that comment to have any meaning, though, I think it is helpful to first ask what kinds of things can go wrong, sonically speaking, with typical desktop systems. When I consider that question, I come up with three answers.

Desktop problem number one is that bass response often sounds thin, anemic, or in some sense truncated. This is not just a frequency response problem, per se, but also a problem where the foundational mid-bass weight underlying the music (or at least many types of music) seems to have gone missing.

Desktop problem number two involves a nominally unpleasant quality of treble shrillness or edginess. In many cases I suspect that the problem is simply that the listener is seated so close to the loudspeaker that what would ordinarily seem very minor (or perhaps even nonexistent) tweeter response anomalies are suddenly laid bare and thrust into painfully sharp focus. Either way, what you may hear are disruptive traces of edginess and glare that break through to spoil the music.

Desktop problem number three, which may be related to number two, is a failure to achieve desirable soundstage depth, width, and three-dimensionality. While some listeners might prefer a relatively up-close listening perspective and others a more distant one, I think we all enjoy the sensation of hearing 3D soundstages that break free from the surfaces of our speaker systems—something many desktop systems seem unable to provide.

The Quad 9L Active systems addresses all three of these problems in creative ways.

First, the 9L Active system addresses the problem of overly lean bass (and general lack of bass weight), first by offering unusually well extended bass response for its diminutive size (claimed response down to a respectable 50Hz), and second by building in a small, well-controlled dollop of extra mid-bass emphasis. For obvious reasons, some will consider this gentle mid-bass lift to be a sonic coloration (which, technically speaking, it is), but if so it is also a decidedly “euphonic” coloration—one that helps the 9L Active supply those missing touches of bass weight and gravitas that many competing desktop systems lack. While the 9L Active system can’t reproduce truly low, deep bass (no speaker system this small can), the system’s response curve tends to make the bass that is present feel much more satisfying.