Hi all,
Here are my impressions of AudiQs based on my visit to them, yesterday.
This is a long post and I hope I did justice to what I had experienced based on my non-audiophile ears
cc
@Rud31 @PCA @ktks1
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I came across
Audiqs.com website and I reached out to them. The speakers looked great in terms of specs and looks.
Amit Jain, the co-founder reached out to me and spoke to me about his story, why he started Audiqs and his promise -- delivering high quality audio to Indians with everything 'Made in India'.
Had a very good initial conversation with Amit. He invited me over for an audition anytime to check out the speaker range.
Intrigued by the conversation -- I've decided to step out and go for an audition, to his house.
Following are the speakers that I had listened specifically for 2 hours:
Gold Achal - 3-way Floorstanding speakers (1" tweeter, 2*6.5 Mid-bass drivers, 1*8" bass woofer)
Platinum Mishra - 2-way Bookshelf speakers (1" tweeter, 1*8" woofer)
These were connected to a Denon x1300 AVR. The sub-woofer was off during the music listening session. I took my playlist on Apple Music and connected to the AVR via bluetooth. I've made notes for about 10 songs that I had played with both of the speakers. And, later also tested them with movie scenes.
Here are my impressions:
(
Please note: I'm not an audiophile and the following are based on my limited knowledge. I don't have any experience listening to other speakers. Only listened to Q Acoustics 3020i and basic models of Pioneer & Polk before)
Gold Achal -- Initially, I had thought the sub-woofer was connected, but no. The bass from these towers is superb. Instrument clarity was great. The detail that these towers were producing was pretty good. Vocal clarity was a little off, initially. We then tried with 'Audessey EQ' off and the vocals sounded crisp. Thought the texture/richness in the vocals was missing when the singer was singing lower pitch. Classical songs sounded great. No doubt about that.
Platinum Mishra -- After completing the 1st round with the towers, we then moved to test the bookshelf speakers.
These have a very enjoyable sound. Definitely not as detailed as the Gold Achal towers, but you have to really look for the differences. The bass was not as high as it was on the Achal speakers. These will shine when paired with a sub-woofer to do justice on the low-end. I somehow felt that these bookshelves gave a certain richness to the vocals.
Playing with Saptak - the power amplifier
Next, Amit connected the speakers to the monoblock Power amplifier beautifully named as 'Saptak' (I really love their speaker names -- Achal, Aakar, Aalaap etc.) He connected the Gold Achals to the amp and played a classical song. My response:
Mindblown
This is the first time I'm experiencing a power amplifier. Suddenly, there was a new 'presence' to the music. It's just mindblowing. A classical song I had played felt like I was transported to the space of the singer.
He then switched to the Platinum Achal towers (these are the flagship models) -- the aforementioned presence was even more detailed. The soundstage came forward, by a bit. I would say these towers combined with the power amp gave absolutely pristine sound. These are definitely more detailed than the Gold Achal towers.
Movie watching
The Center channel and 4 surrounds were turned on. There were 2 sub-woofers. (7.2.4 setup)
Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring -- Tested the following scenes: War sequence at the start of the film - Bass was very powerful. Clearly felt the rumble. Surround effect was great.
The scene where the fellowship is formed -- I felt that the texture was missing a little in the dialogue. I would've preferred it to be a little richer.
The snow mountain scene with avalanche falling. -- Bass & surround effect were top-notch.
Gravity -- the first sequence where the space station is destroyed. The surround and bass were top-notch. Again, would've preferred a little more richness in the dialogue from the center channel.
I wished I could've spent more-time with the movie watching but I had to leave!
Overall
I'm really glad that I met Amit and experienced AudiQs speakers. I was mesmerised by the music reproduction by them. (Also mentioned by Amit that they are specifically tuned for music.) He truly embodies customer-centricity and mentioned that even if I do not want to go with AudiQs, he would help me in choosing speakers from other brands, based on my needs.
PS: Amit also mentioned that they could custom-make the speaker finish based on one's living room furniture theme.
www.hifivision.com
