By Lam Seng Fatt
The Audiovector QR7 floorstanders, the top model in the entry-level QR range, was officially launched in Malaysia last night by the CEO and Owner of F3/Audiovector ApS Mads Klifoth at the showroom of Audio Perfectionist, its Malaysian distributor, in Jaya One, Petaling Jaya. The QR7 made its world debut at the High End Munich earlier this year.
The Audiovector QR7 was connected to a McIntosh-based system and those who attended the launch were treated to a few hours of demo tracks. Another system comprising the Audiovector R6 and an Aavik-based system was also played.
Before the demo sessions and a Japanese dinner, Mads talked about the company founded by his father in 1979. His father, who is now 73 years old, agreed around five and a half years ago to sell 70% of the company to Mads, who was actually trained in real estate but followed the call of his family’s DNA and ventured into the hi-fi and speaker-building industry.
Mads said the speaker drivers are designed in-house but made by Scan-Speak while the AMT tweeters are designed and made in-house.
The R-series speakers have curved cabinets to reduce standing waves and all Audiovector speakers do not use wool or foam to dampen internal waves and vibrations. Instead neoprene sheets are used to line the walls.
All parts of the speaker have their own functions and even the plate used to house the crossover and speaker terminals is made of carbon fibre instead of the usual metal to ensure there is no effect on the crossover components.
Audiovector is also one of the few companies that favours grounding speakers. A quick check with Google revealed that Tannoy and Esoteric (Google also revealed that the Esoteric speakers were assembled in the UK by Tannoy) have used this technology before. But while Tannoy suggested connecting the ground terminal to either a ground terminal on an amplifier or a screw on the chassis of the amplifier, Audiovector does it in a better way. In an Audiovector speaker, the baskets of the woofers are connected with wires to a grounding filter inside the cabinet which is then connected via the third or fifth (if the speaker is designed for bi-wiring) speaker terminal to the ground pin of a power plug which is then plugged to the mains. However, the grounding system is only available in the Arreté models in the higher-level R-range and it is called the ‘Freedom’ terminal because it frees up the sound.
Does it work? Mads demoed the grounding system on an R-6 Arreté with Aavik components. With this system the difference was quite hard to discern but there was a slight increase in clarity and details. But the improvements were more dramatic when he demoed the grounding system with a pair of R-1 Arreté bookshelf speakers with McIntosh components.
Audiovector is also the only speaker manufacturer that features a rear port for the AMT tweeter.
Though Audiovector has been in Malaysia for a while, audiophiles here will definitely hear more of its speakers with Audio Perfectionist becoming its new distributor.
The Audiovector QR7 floorstanders retail at RM30,780 a pair.
