Floorstanding loudspeakers — QLN Reference 9

Qln Acoustics built the Reference 9 as a floor-standing three-way design. The company is Swedish, founded in 1977 by Nils Liljeroth and Lars Quicklund. It made its debut at AXPONA 2024, and the announced price was EUR 42,000 per pair. Qln states that its aim is faithful reproduction of the human voice and acoustic instruments, with the balance between driver size, cone material and cone weight treated as the core design question.

Key specs that matter

Three custom drivers share the work. A 25 mm tweeter uses an air flow magnet system and an acoustic chamber design, a proprietary 7 inch midrange has a Kevlar cone driven by hexagonal copper voice coils, and a 9 inch woofer has a coated carbon sandwich cone that Qln describes as ultra-stiff. Sensitivity is 91 dB SPL at 2.83 V and 1 m, measured between 100 Hz and 10 kHz, and nominal impedance is 4 ohm. Low frequency output reaches 25 Hz at the -3 dB point. The maker asks for amplification of 50 to 300 W RMS. Each cabinet stands 1050 mm high, 300 mm wide and 650 mm deep, and weighs 65 kg.

Engineering and use context

Qln makes all enclosure panels from Qboard, the proprietary sandwich material of Qln, here in 40 mm thick walls with a visco-elastic damping layer inside the panels, and the cabinet is heavily braced. Low frequencies are tuned through a bass reflex port that has a trumpet flare at both ends. Between midrange and tweeter the crossover uses a 6 dB slope. Parts inside the network include copper foil capacitors, low loss copper foil coils and non-inductive high-power resistors. Signal enters through one pair of WBT terminals, which rules out bi-wiring or bi-amping. Two standard finishes are listed - Walnut Matte and Rose Piano. Given the deep cabinet, the speaker needs a room with enough free floor space behind and in front of it, and two people should handle each unit when unpacking.

Pairing

Its efficiency leaves many amplifiers usable, though one that remains stable with low loads is the sensible starting point. Solid state stereo or mono amplifiers in the power window named by Qln cover the full range, while a capable valve amplifier at the lower end of that window can also drive the speaker to useful levels in a large room.

Alternatives

Among other floorstanding Qln designs, the Prestige Five is the model to compare.