Quested V2108 Monitor Review
The V2108 is a ground-up redesign of one of the UK monitor industry’s most revered speakers. Huw Price investigates.
Price: £1,620.00
Manufacturer: Quested
Website: http://www.quested.com
Manufacturer Quested
Price £1,620 each (£3,240/pair)
Contact Affinity Audio 01923 265400
Web www.quested.com
Quested, it’s probably safe to say, has always been more concerned about making superb speakers than anything else. The manual here, for instance, consists merely of a handful of A4 sheets printed with a failing ink cartridge and stuffed into a plastic binder they probably bought at an office stationery supplier.
Nobody could accuse Quested of being a slave to aesthetics, then, so by the company’s austere and brutally functional standards the V2108 is unusually stylish – if only because of the rounded baffle edges. It’s clear that British boffins are running the show, but for some reason we find these things encouraging.
The V2108 replaces the VS2108 in Quested’s product line. But this near/midfield speaker, in various forms, has been one of Quested’s most popular and respected speakers for decades… so why, you might ask, has Quested felt the need to upgrade something that was so fundamentally right?
Sounds the part
The main reason is that some of the components used in the very first 2108 models have become increasingly difficult to source. Over the years, Quested has been forced to change components here and there, which always necessitates some partial redesign work to compensate. Eventually, it was decided that the time for a complete redesign had come – but Quested took great care to ensure that the character and performance remained fundamentally unchanged.
Nevertheless, the world of pro audio has changed significantly, and since V2108s are these days likely to feature in a 5.1 setup with subs, a four-position LF compensation switch has been added. As well as a +1dB setting you can choose from flat, -3dB and -9dB. There’s HF contouring, too, but with only -1dB, flat and +1dB settings it’s clear that Quested feels under no obligation to ‘fix’ your room issues for you.
Another upgrade that might easily be overlooked is a subtle redesign of the front ports. This is to eliminate ‘chuffing’, whereby air escaping from the ports becomes audible. The back panel also features ten-stage input sensitivity switching, with a range spanning 18dB in 2dB steps.
The MDF cabinets measure 340 x 400 x 365mm and you’ll need sturdy stands to cope with the 23kg weight. Onboard amplifiers provide 200W each for the 1.125-inch soft-dome tweeter and eight-inch woofer. There should be sufficient space around the speakers to ensure they don’t overheat, but onboard temperature sensing automatically shuts off the amps if they get too hot.
The power switch is around the back and silent switch-on causes a blue LED at the front to flash. This flashing will cease when the amps have fully warmed up; the LED will flash red in response to excessive input levels. If the thermal sensing shuts off the amps, this LED illuminates solid red.
British beef
It seems odd that once the quality of a monitoring system goes above a certain point we often seem to assess them on what they don’t do rather than what they do. The V2108s are a case in point because we couldn’t say they sound bright, bassy, hard or soft. The point is that they don’t appear to have any defining sonic characteristics at all.
Instead they’re like a transparent window into your music, with an ability to fill a room with gorgeous, undistorted sound effortlessly. During our time with them we tracked up some guitars and recorded some lead vocals. The warts-and-all clarity made our vocal mic shoot-out a breeze, while the subsequent day-long editing session was effortless because we experienced no ear-fatigue whatsoever.
Similarly, getting a balance, making critical equalisation decisions and assessing effects levels when mixing and mastering was just about as easy as it gets. The V2108s give it to you like it really is: you can be bold, you can follow your instincts, because they simply inspire a sense of trust. MTM
WHY BUY
Transparent sound
Solid imaging
Deep bass
Loud and undistorted
Practical frequency correction
Superbly non-fatiguing
Rock-solid build
WALK ON BY
Power switch at rear
Too heavy for location work
Verdict
They’re not cheap, but they may well be the last pair of monitors you ever need to buy.
★★★★★★★★★★ (9/10)
SEE ALSO:
Studio Monitor Reviews
Choosing and Using Monitors (Feature)
Monitor Design (10MM)
Score: 9
This review first appeared in Music Tech Magazine issue 97
Filed under
Quested Monitor Reviews,
Reviews,
Studio Monitors
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