Q ACOUSTICS 3010i & 3020i

In our main bimonthly issues of Sound+Image we have already reviewed the floorstanding model from Q Acoustics’ latest updated 3000i Series of high-value loudspeakers. We liked it very much — sufficiently to award it our Sound+Image 2019 Standmount Speaker of the Year under $2000. But this series also includes two sizes of ‘bookshelf’ models, the 3010i and the 3020i. We’ve decided to bundle these two remarkably high value sets of speakers together for this review, given their similarities — though also some differences.

EQUIPMENT

Before digging into them, we should mention that as part of the same range as the 3010i, 3020i and 3050i are the 3090i centre channel and 3060S subwoofer — the complete set is pictured opposite. Clearly you could add those to some combinations of stereo speakers to make a full home theatre package. But here we’re listening to them as stereo pairs.

Stylistically they’re clearly in the same family as the 3050i