“The most remarkable thing about the QLN Signature 3 is that it simply doesn’t feel like a hi-fi speaker, it just feels like a device for reproducing music. The midrange is so clean there’s almost nothing to say about it, but not in a dry or clinical way, nor in a rich, overly warm way. The Signature 3 is a rare speaker that doesn’t seem to impart a ton of personality onto the music, and also seems to take an interesting perspective on the ‘they’re here’ and ‘I am there’ presentation choice. Rather than being inherently forward or relaxed the QLN does seem to have an uncanny presence in the room yet generally defers to the baked-in ambient cues in the recordings. The balance ends up being that I sometimes find spookily realistic sounding audio illusions jumping out even in distance mic-ed classical recordings, or hear low level ambient spatial cues in heavily produced modern music.
If it seems like I’m having a hard time saying enough good things about the QLN Signature 3, it’s because I am. This is a rare speaker that really rises above the pack as one that impresses on audiophile qualities, yet proved not only easy to live, but hard to live without.”
Read the full review here
Photo courtesy of Brian Hunter