Q Acoustics Concept 50 Floorstanding Speakers Gloss White (Pair)

The Concept 50 is Q Acoustics' floorstanding loudspeaker within the Concept range, positioned between the Concept 30 standmount and the flagship Concept 500. It takes the proprietary cabinet and driver technologies first developed for the Concept 300 and 500 and brings them to a more accessible price point, delivering a speaker that punches well above its weight in both build quality and acoustic performance.

Cabinet Construction

The Concept 50 employs Q Acoustics' Gelcore™ cabinet construction, in which a non-setting gel is sandwiched between two individual layers of MDF. This viscoelastic layer converts high-frequency cabinet vibrations into heat, significantly reducing cabinet-borne colouration and delivering focused, uncoloured audio. Internal rigidity is further enhanced by P2P™ (Point to Point) bracing, which reinforces the cabinet panels most susceptible to low-frequency resonance. The bracing positions were determined using Finite Element Analysis and laser interferometry to target the areas where stiffening yields the greatest acoustic benefit.

Helmholtz Pressure Equaliser

A common challenge with floorstanding enclosures is the build-up of internal standing waves, which can cause unwanted bass bloom and midrange colouration. The Concept 50 addresses this with HPE™ (Helmholtz Pressure Equaliser) tubes fitted inside the cabinet. These tubes convert internal air pressure into velocity, nullifying standing waves and optimising the frequency response across the full bandwidth of the enclosure.

Driver Design

The Concept 50 uses a 2.5-way configuration with two custom 125mm (5.0in) mid/bass drivers flanking a single 25mm (1.0in) tweeter in a D’Appolito arrangement. The mid/bass drivers feature a 30.5mm voice coil, providing a 50% increase in power handling compared with a standard 25.4mm design. Each driver is mounted to a 3mm aluminium front baffle via pretensioned studs, which create an acoustic seal while dampening vibrations transmitted from the cone assembly to the cabinet.

The tweeter is hermetically sealed and mechanically isolated from the baffle, effectively floating free of any resonance generated by the mid/bass drivers. This isolation allows the crossover point to be set lower at 2.1kHz, reducing the workload on the tweeter and improving midrange clarity through the critical presence region.

Isolation Suspension Base

Rather than coupling the cabinet directly to the floor, the Concept 50 sits on a sprung isolation base. Suspension spheres separate the upper and lower base plates, decoupling the cabinet from external vibrations transmitted through the floor. This yields tighter stereo imaging and greater low-frequency depth and control. The crossover network is also mounted to this isolation base rather than inside the main cabinet, minimising microphonic interference and electromagnetic coupling with the drivers.

Connectivity

Bi-wire terminals are fitted as standard, allowing separate cabling for the high-frequency and mid/bass sections. Bi-wiring minimises intermodulation distortion that can occur when both frequency bands share a single cable run. Foam bungs and magnetic grilles are included for fine-tuning bass response and aesthetics to suit the listening environment.