Qualio Audio join the WBF forums!

[QualioAudio]

Qualio Audio is a new audio brand from Poland, with it's origins in the renown Cube Audio brand.​

We would like to present, in our humble opinion, an amazing speaker - the IQ.​

Some years ago we founded Cube Audio - www.cubeaudio.eu. Cube Audio makes some of the best full range single driver speakers available today. Full range single driver speakers can sound absolutely fantastic, but they require a very specialized system, typically using flee power tube amplifiers. Not resting on our laurels, we decided we also wanted to give owners of more powerful amplifiers a fresh new option for the most amazing sound."

Qualio Audio IQ speaker is our first 3-way speakers and it is quite unique ​

It has a semi-open baffle to begin with. It has a Mundorf AMT tweeter and SB Acoustic Satori midrange housed in an acrylic open baffle, resulting in an amazingly open and holograph sound. The 9.5-inch woofer is housed in a ported design and delivers deep and fast bass down to below 30 Hz. Only high quality parts are used, such as the Mundorf tweeter, capacitors and resistors, Jantzen coils, SB Acoustic top driver from the Satori line and WBT speaker terminals.

The IQ speaker perform their best with amplifiers of class AB and D with at least 40W per channel.

Here's what Srajan Ebaen of 6moons.com wrote about the speakers in his review:
"A Lambo in a Honda Chassis. To put together the dream rig, I start with the speakers. Nothing in recent nor fainter memory stands as tall as the €5,500/pr Qualio IQ, sold in direct sales."​

www.qualioaudio.com​

QUALIO AUDIO'S MISSION IS TO BRING TRUE HIGH-END SPEAKER PERFORMANCE
AT PRICES THAT CHALLENGE THE AUDIO MARKET​

 

[bryans]

Welcome to the forum

 

[Tuckers]

I'll be excited to hear them someday!

 

[Mendel]

Very interesting speakers! Any dealers in Canada where I can have a listen?

 

[Zkeller]

I am interested in open baffle speakers but my understanding is that you need a lot of space behind the speakers because of rear reflections? I am assuming the same for these?

 

[PYP]

beautiful. Good luck with the launch.

 

[QualioAudio]

Thank you guys for your great welcome.

So there is plenty of things to do now

We will have a dealer in Canada and they will be announced on 17th of July, when we will introduce our new dealers network.

Also when it comes to IQ here is where they don't get the full on Open Baffle character. The high and mid frequencies are in the Open baffle so you get the benefit of amazing air, space, presence, with very clean, but rich and colourful presentation with full on 3D imaging. The bass however being in Bass Reflex cabinet does not require the placement in the middle of the room. You can do that if you want to, but you don't need to do that. We have customers putting the speakers 20 cm from walls with great success.

Also I just finished my YouTube Studio where I will record the speakers with combination of different amplifiers. First video is the Qualio IQ with Fezz Titania Amplifier where I roll the tubes between KT88, 6550, KT120, KT150. The DAC is Lampizator Baltic 4 and all is recorded with High End Schoeps mics and 32 Bit recorder

You can check out how the IQ sound with different tubes in this video -

 

[PYP]

I'm not a tube user, but the KT 120 sounded very sweet. How about some orchestral music too?

Would be interested in how they sound with a good Class D amp if used with a Lampi front-end where tubes can be rolled.

 

[gleeds]

Welcome to WBF gentleman! This is a very innovative approach to high-value high-performance speaker design. Congratulations on your design and bold entry into the market.

 

[Knopf405]

Shout out to Qualio and Grzegorz for a remarkable speaker. Thought I would share some impressions and why I think this is such a unique 3 way. I have about 25 years learning, the last 15 confined to a smaller office 20 x 24'. This has produced over a decade of plenty of experience with mostly 2 -way designs (many cost no object) and a handful of smallish 3 way designs in essentially a max setting but with zero hang-ups on pretentiousness. I enjoy trying gear, not out of restless dissatisfaction but rather slowly building a resume through the experience of different designs so I can form my own opinions. The last 3-4 years has seen adding active high passing to a variety of 2 ways and covering the lowest octave actively low passed with two Modalakustic ripole subs. That is a shift for me that will never be repealed. I would go so far as to suggest it is THE solution for full range sound even if the largest floorstanders and SOTA amplification are a possibility in any given set up, actively driving ripole subs out in the room away from the mains is not likely to be eclipsed.

We all have our preferences no doubt but also to a degree seek a sound that is more similar than admitted. My sense is the pivot point being the frequent sacrifice in body as you climb further into the benefits of resolution both spatial and textural. Few would object to a proper soundscape with the performers in that space sounding human and the instruments sounding proper and with the ability to still resolve the subtlety that can take you there. Whether we describe it that way or not is a different story.

In the world of 2 way monitors there is not a single one in existence with a 6.5" driver or smaller that can produce the scale, impact and more importantly the body that makes recorded music satisfying. That is my opinion from experience with over 40 of them. Even in an active set up with ripole subs that can often stay flat in room up to 200hz with no DSP they will not be able to fill the void in the lower midrange of a typical 6.5" 2 way. I realize that in room measurements will suggest otherwise but that is my experience. Something is always missing in the body and texture department in the midrange at that size that cannot be made up in other areas.

I agree with a friend and speaker designer Alain Pratali of Aurai Audio in France that the ideal size of a midrange driver is around 8"-9" if you are looking to walk the fine line of tradeoffs. (lack of speed and detail as you go larger, beaming etc.....) For this reason many of my favorite 2 ways have a midbass driver around this size including a beautiful pair of Alain's Z245's with a 9" Supravox main driver.

Which leads to the hot mess that is the typical 3 way (or higher for that matter)..........They all sound plagued with the same disease to me, a narrow bandwidth midrange driver with steep curves on both sides at key freq's and complex filters that make a mess of phase. The wrongness in the sound is always easy to notice, an airy detached lonesome midrange and treble floating usually not so gracefully on top of (literally in the image) a woofer playing away to its own tune in an obvious fashion.....A few designs in years past took a shot in the right direction, the original Egglestonworks Andra I believe comes to mind, with a decent sized midrange driver playing wide open into a revelator and drivers below hoping to keep up.... and that is where it fell apart.

Which leads to the IQ. Nothing new in having an open baffle mid / tweet sitting on a bass box (Nola comes to mind) but there is some magic going on with the integration of the mid / woofer that inexperienced listeners might easily overlook. However possible the handoff with this Satori midrange running nearly as a widebander dropping down to meet the Satori 9" is where it shines. It's the combo of the two, the obvious quality of the SB midrange faking it as a widebander and far more impressively the 9" playing up to it with such high quality as to not muddy what should be an impossible ask: fill in the lean transparency that is the hallmark of any open baffle midrange.

So what do you get? perhaps this track might be a good description. Streaming Qobuz, listening to Stevie Nicks singing Landslide on Tusk special edition. it is a live cut from Omaha NE 8/21/80. Not an ideal recording by any measure I would venture, soundboard recording, Qobuz etc.....Source is a Grimm Mu1, Dac is a Mola Tambaqui. This is the best version I have ever heard of this song, Stevie gets very quiet and intimate with her voice, the venue is large, her voice young. But remarkably, despite the degree of resolution of the upper harmonics of her vocals, in the quietest passages of her vocal it has the body that makes Stevie Nicks voice sound like her. There is a lower chestiness and edge that is Stevie and it is there in all its glory alongside everythng you might imagine a high qulaity midrange driver producing above that in an open baffle. That magic really is the contribution of the 9" coming up to meet it in a way that never ever declares itself. That is the greatest accomplishment of this speaker, the marriage of the two SB drivers creating effectively perhaps the most resolute 9" driver I have ever heard..... That is at least the best way to describe what it sounds like to me. Add in scale and uncompressed dynamics when pressed, and you have a speaker to be reckoned with, regardless of cost. This is a disruptive design accomplishment. Bravo gents.

 

[PYP]

Shout out to Qualio and Grzegorz for a remarkable speaker. Thought I would share some impressions and why I think this is such a unique 3 way. I have about 25 years learning, the last 15 confined to a smaller office 20 x 24'. This has produced over a decade of plenty of experience with mostly 2 -way designs (many cost no object) and a handful of smallish 3 way designs in essentially a max setting but with zero hang-ups on pretentiousness. I enjoy trying gear, not out of restless dissatisfaction but rather slowly building a resume through the experience of different designs so I can form my own opinions. The last 3-4 years has seen adding active high passing to a variety of 2 ways and covering the lowest octave actively low passed with two Modalakustic ripole subs. That is a shift for me that will never be repealed. I would go so far as to suggest it is THE solution for full range sound even if the largest floorstanders and SOTA amplification are a possibility in any given set up, actively driving ripole subs out in the room away from the mains is not likely to be eclipsed.

We all have our preferences no doubt but also to a degree seek a sound that is more similar than admitted. My sense is the pivot point being the frequent sacrifice in body as you climb further into the benefits of resolution both spatial and textural. Few would object to a proper soundscape with the performers in that space sounding human and the instruments sounding proper and with the ability to still resolve the subtlety that can take you there. Whether we describe it that way or not is a different story.

In the world of 2 way monitors there is not a single one in existence with a 6.5" driver or smaller that can produce the scale, impact and more importantly the body that makes recorded music satisfying. That is my opinion from experience with over 40 of them. Even in an active set up with ripole subs that can often stay flat in room up to 200hz with no DSP they will not be able to fill the void in the lower midrange of a typical 6.5" 2 way. I realize that in room measurements will suggest otherwise but that is my experience. Something is always missing in the body and texture department in the midrange at that size that cannot be made up in other areas.

I agree with a friend and speaker designer Alain Pratali of Aurai Audio in France that the ideal size of a midrange driver is around 8"-9" if you are looking to walk the fine line of tradeoffs. (lack of speed and detail as you go larger, beaming etc.....) For this reason many of my favorite 2 ways have a midbass driver around this size including a beautiful pair of Alain's Z245's with a 9" Supravox main driver.

Which leads to the hot mess that is the typical 3 way (or higher for that matter)..........They all sound plagued with the same disease to me, a narrow bandwidth midrange driver with steep curves on both sides at key freq's and complex filters that make a mess of phase. The wrongness in the sound is always easy to notice, an airy detached lonesome midrange and treble floating usually not so gracefully on top of (literally in the image) a woofer playing away to its own tune in an obvious fashion.....A few designs in years past took a shot in the right direction, the original Egglestonworks Andra I believe comes to mind, with a decent sized midrange driver playing wide open into a revelator and drivers below hoping to keep up.... and that is where it fell apart.

Which leads to the IQ. Nothing new in having an open baffle mid / tweet sitting on a bass box (Nola comes to mind) but there is some magic going on with the integration of the mid / woofer that inexperienced listeners might easily overlook. However possible the handoff with this Satori midrange running nearly as a widebander dropping down to meet the Satori 9" is where it shines. It's the combo of the two, the obvious quality of the SB midrage faking it as a widebander and far more impressively the 9" playing up to it with such quality as to not muddy what should be an impossible ask: fill in the lean transparency that is the hallmark of any open baffle midrange.

So what do you get? perhaps this track might be a good description. Streaming Qobuz, listening to Stevie Nicks singing Landslide on Tusk special edition. it is a live cut from Omaha NE 8/21/80. Not an ideal recording by any measure I would venture, soundboard recording, Qobuz etc.....Source is a Grimm Mu1, Dac is a Mola Tambaqui. This is the best version I have ever heard of this song, Stevie gets very quiet and intimate with her voice, the venue is large, her voice young. But remarkably, despite the degree of resolution of the upper harmonics of her vocals, in the quietest passages of her vocal it has the body that makes Stevie Nicks voice sound like her. There is a lower chestiness and edge that is Stevie and it is there in all its glory alongside everythng you might imagine a high qulaity midrange driver producing above that in an open baffle. That magic really is the contribution of the 9" coming up to meet it in a way that never ever declares itself. That is the greatest accomplishment of this speaker, the marriage of the two SB drivers creating effectively perhaps the most resolute 9" driver I have ever heard..... That is at least the best way to describe what it sounds like to me. Add in scale and uncompressed dynamics when pressed, and you have a speaker to be reckoned with, regardless of cost. This is a disruptive design accomplishment. Bravo gents.

excellent sources (Grimm, Mola Mola). Which amp(s) worked well?

 

[Knopf405]

Ha! like I said no pretentiousness here right now a pair of bridged Topping LA90D's having no trouble with them. As you can see Grzegorz was gracious to allow me to design the LF cabinet for my needs. He pushed back a bit until he realized I knew exactly what I needed and why. It is sealed. Should have only been good to about 80-90Hz but getting way more out of it than that, this 9" SB bass driver is something else. Been listening a fair amount with the HP on my SPL crossover inactive and have extremely high quality bass down to the the mid 40's I would guess.

I have several high quality A and AB amps lying around, Musiklab, Pass, Valvet and a old reworked ARC V70 balanced tube amp that I have not thrown on them, occasional winter amp.

The LA90D is easily the quietest amp I have had in my system and the quality of the upper midrange and treble is remarkable. I did not care for the Benchmark amp with similar design goals of max SNR, the topping amps are very different and addicting, I like not worrying about them being on constantly either on a long weekend. 12V trigger is nice too.

I could see with the floorstander IQ's that SS amps with speed and punch would pair nicely, not surprised they like the Naim integrated on them. In my system however the IQ's are not behaving like 2-ways many of which need some current and volume and an amp with midbass punch to have them on song at low listening levels, these are well balanced at low levels. I imagine it could be different in a larger room with the floorstander.

 

[PYP]

Ha! like I said no pretentiousness here right now a pair of bridged Topping LA90D's having no trouble with them. As you can see Grzegorz was gracious to allow me to design the LF cabinet for my needs. He pushed back a bit until he realized I knew exactly what I needed and why. It is sealed. Should have only been good to about 80-90Hz but getting way more out of it than that, this 9" SB bass driver is something else. Been listening a fair amount with the HP on my SPL crossover inactive and have extremely high quality bass down to the the mid 40's I would guess.

I have several high quality A and AB amps lying around, Musiklab, Pass, Valvet and a old reworked ARC V70 balanced tube amp that I have not thrown on them, occasional winter amp.

The LA90D is easily the quietest amp I have had in my system and the quality of the upper midrange and treble is remarkable. I did not care for the Benchmark amp with similar design goals of max SNR, the topping amps are very different and addicting, I like not worrying about them being on constantly either on a long weekend. 12V trigger is nice too.

I could see with the floorstander IQ's that SS amps with speed and punch would pair nicely, not surprised they like the Naim integrated on them. In my system however the IQ's are not behaving like 2-ways many of which need some current and volume and an amp with midbass punch to have them on song at low listening levels, these are well balanced at low levels. I imagine it could be different in a larger room with the floorstander.

Thanks. That explains the photo. Couldn't figure out why the dimensions looked incorrect. As you say, you know what you want. Enjoy!

 

[Ron Resnick]

Welcome to WBF, Qualio Audio!

 

[QualioAudio]

Ha! like I said no pretentiousness here right now a pair of bridged Topping LA90D's having no trouble with them. As you can see Grzegorz was gracious to allow me to design the LF cabinet for my needs. He pushed back a bit until he realized I knew exactly what I needed and why. It is sealed. Should have only been good to about 80-90Hz but getting way more out of it than that, this 9" SB bass driver is something else. Been listening a fair amount with the HP on my SPL crossover inactive and have extremely high quality bass down to the the mid 40's I would guess.

I have several high quality A and AB amps lying around, Musiklab, Pass, Valvet and a old reworked ARC V70 balanced tube amp that I have not thrown on them, occasional winter amp.

The LA90D is easily the quietest amp I have had in my system and the quality of the upper midrange and treble is remarkable. I did not care for the Benchmark amp with similar design goals of max SNR, the topping amps are very different and addicting, I like not worrying about them being on constantly either on a long weekend. 12V trigger is nice too.

I could see with the floorstander IQ's that SS amps with speed and punch would pair nicely, not surprised they like the Naim integrated on them. In my system however the IQ's are not behaving like 2-ways many of which need some current and volume and an amp with midbass punch to have them on song at low listening levels, these are well balanced at low levels. I imagine it could be different in a larger room with the floorstander.

Happy that you received the speakers and that they play to your expectations

Interestingly, you are playing with a Topping amp.

I know this might seem like heresy but, last few days ago we were at an audio show in Hong Kong. (If you want to see the video report you can find it here

I recorded a video from our new Hong Kong dealer rooms with Qualio IQ, Aiyima A07, and Fiio Q3 Dac - the entire electronics costing around 400$ and I have to say if that were the system that I would have till the end of my life I would be a happy person. IQ can sound amazing with even very cheap class D amps and clearly, you can build the system around Qualio IQ + 200$ D-class amp.

You can hear the video here

- It's insane how good the sound is for such a combo.

 

[PYP]

Happy that you received the speakers and that they play to your expectations

Interestingly, you are playing with a Topping amp.

I know this might seem like heresy but, last few days ago we were at an audio show in Hong Kong. (If you want to see the video report you can find it here

I recorded a video from our new Hong Kong dealer rooms with Qualio IQ, Aiyima A07, and Fiio Q3 Dac - the entire electronics costing around 400$ and I have to say if that were the system that I would have till the end of my life I would be a happy person. IQ can sound amazing with even very cheap class D amps and clearly, you can build the system around Qualio IQ + 200$ D-class amp.

You can hear the video here

- It's insane how good the sound is for such a combo.

Usually, I cannot tell much from a video, but it is very obvious that your speakers are wonderful with vocals. I randomly skipped to minute 21 and was surprised by what I heard. Very nice! Well done!

I hope your product is able to bring more folks into our hobby, which is about enjoying music and forgetting the gear (perhaps "not obsessing about gear" is a better description and goal).

 

[Knopf405]

Yes, the audio hierarchy in a bit of a state of upheaval after many years of speculation of said upheaval IMO, especially with amplification and digital sources a close second. The TA3255 is a wonder chip for sure, with a 48V supply it is shockingly good. I built a portable boom box this summer with 2 Tannoy 8" coaxials and this little amp internally and it kills it.

Your experience should not be surprising however. The speaker in the chain has always been the greatest distortion producer and has made the least amount of progress by far in the past 20 years. The IQ is unique, name its closest rival in design? There is none.

Only recently do we have amplifiers that can measure close to our best digital sources and up until very recently at limited power and limited headroom. The little Topping LA90 in bridged mode for $800 has astonishing measured performance (which can tell us some things about it's sound but not everything). It will not increase its power much into a variable load when bridged which will limit the speakers it gets along with. However, it clips very hard. Shockingly it has vanishingly low distortion right up to the point of clipping. There are $30K amplifiers that cannot come close to matching the LA90's measured power output vs noise into a stable load, of which the Qualio tends to be. So on paper, the LA90 is unique. Deciding how it sounds is easy, buy a pair and risk $1500 with a 90 day return policy.

I have $30k in electronics preceding the LA90's, but i really don't care, I can afford whatever I want. I do have some of the better cheap chip based DACs lying around and they leave me wanting for the Mola and most likely due to the quality of the output stage on the Mola which is unquestionably robust and fully class A no question as the Dac runs really HOT (like the excellent Resolution Audio Dacs of the '90 that Jeff Kalt used to make)...

great time to be into good sound for sure.

 

[QualioAudio]

Yes, the audio hierarchy in a bit of a state of upheaval after many years of speculation of said upheaval IMO, especially with amplification and digital sources a close second. The TA3255 is a wonder chip for sure, with a 48V supply it is shockingly good. I built a portable boom box this summer with 2 Tannoy 8" coaxials and this little amp internally and it kills it.

Your experience should not be surprising however. The speaker in the chain has always been the greatest distortion producer and has made the least amount of progress by far in the past 20 years. The IQ is unique, name its closest rival in design? There is none.

Only recently do we have amplifiers that can measure close to our best digital sources and up until very recently at limited power and limited headroom. The little Topping LA90 in bridged mode for $800 has astonishing measured performance (which can tell us some things about it's sound but not everything). It will not increase its power much into a variable load when bridged which will limit the speakers it gets along with. However, it clips very hard. Shockingly it has vanishingly low distortion right up to the point of clipping. There are $30K amplifiers that cannot come close to matching the LA90's measured power output vs noise into a stable load, of which the Qualio tends to be. So on paper, the LA90 is unique. Deciding how it sounds is easy, buy a pair and risk $1500 with a 90 day return policy.

I have $30k in electronics preceding the LA90's, but i really don't care, I can afford whatever I want. I do have some of the better cheap chip based DACs lying around and they leave me wanting for the Mola and most likely due to the quality of the output stage on the Mola which is unquestionably robust and fully class A no question as the Dac runs really HOT (like the excellent Resolution Audio Dacs of the '90 that Jeff Kalt used to make)...

great time to be into good sound for sure.

Great to hear that, I'll definitely give it a try if possible. I heard TA3255 chip crashed some legendary solid state amps so I totally agree that nowadays the weak spot is the speakers since you can get great electronics at a very reasonable cost.

 

[Knopf405]

The LA90 has a SMPS with a traditional mosfet output stage.

That is where amplification is headed IMO, a rethinking of power supplies, ala LinnenberG's new mono's, better and better switching supplies tied to more traditional output stages.

I can only imagine a new SS amp with a SMPS tied to the legendary IXYS dual mosfets of the Gamut / Musiklab amplifiers running both the bipolar drivers and the mosfet outputs. The PS could even be outboard like the LA90......An amp like that could deliver 900w of class AB power from 2 output devices into 1ohm from a package that would not be much larger than my Mola Dac per channel and generate average heat. The Gamut S300 weighed 400lbs to accomplish the same....

The cost would be low, so it will be interesting to see how the high end amp makers navigate $20K price tags now in small light weight jewelry boxes

 

[Knopf405]

The IQ is definitely worthy of top shelf components in the crossover. Qualio did a fantastic job with the commercial crossover with Jantzen foil inductor on the midrange and high quality Mundorf alum caps at all locations.

It is not practical in a commercial speaker for the manufacturer to max out these parts for two reasons. First is simply the law of diminishing returns, these parts can eclipse the entire speaker on cost. Secondly post covid the ready availability of more premium passive parts has been very inconsistent. If you want the inductor on the bass unit in the Qualio to be a Duelund CAST copper its about 10 months wait.

That being said my experience is that when a speaker hits all of the marks due to its design, crossover upgrades are even more likely to pay serious dividends.

So I spent some time past couple of weeks maxing them out. Only part that stayed is the original Jantzen foil inductor on the midrange, hard to better that one.....