Полочная акустика — GURU Audio Q10

The Q10 is a compact stand-mount from Guru Audio, the Swedish company that took over the manufacture and distribution of designs by Ingvar Öhman. It began as the QM10, the initials standing for Quality Manager, a monitor originally designed for professional use. It is built to stand close to a wall, where its unusual bass loading works as intended.

Key specs that matter

It uses a 19 mm soft dome tweeter and a 102 mm mid/bass with a black mineral fibre cone. The cabinet is a Helmholtz resonator made of MDF and aluminium. Typical in-room response is 30 Hz to 30 kHz, sensitivity is 87 dB at 2.83 V and nominal impedance is 5 ohms. The passive crossover works across a broad band between 2 and 7 kHz. Recommended amplifier power is 20 W to 160 W. The box is 300 mm wide, 252 mm deep and 232 mm high, and it can sit on a bookshelf or a stand.

Engineering and use context

The Q10's cabinet is wider than it is tall and uses a Helmholtz resonator to load the bass driver, a principle in which a volume of air and an opening resonate at a tuned frequency. Designed for placement near a rear wall, the speaker uses the boundary as part of its bass loading. Guru states that the long, linear stroke of the 102 mm driver and its pressure factor, which the company says exceeds that of a typical 15 in driver by more than three times, let it reach 30 Hz. The mineral fibre cone of the Guru B59mf driver behaves in a controlled way across its range and contributes above its nominal band as part of the stereo compensation. Rather than a steep textbook filter, the crossover function spreads the transition over a wide band, which Guru describes as a non-textbook design. The radiation pattern is shaped for what the company calls a wide listening field, keeping the response stable over a wide listening area. Ideal listening distance is 1 to 4 m. Guru offers a dedicated Standpoint Q10 stand, and finishes are white, ocean grey and black. Guru, established in 2007, builds its loudspeakers by hand within the EU. The company describes the aim of the Q10 as recreating the recorded event with accuracy in timing and space, adapting to the properties of the listening room and compensating for the inherent flaws of two-channel stereo with respect to human hearing.

Pairing

The moderate sensitivity and benign load work with modest amplifiers, and 50 to 100 W per channel gives comfortable headroom. The Q10 suits rooms of 12 to 25 m2 with placement against the wall.

Alternatives

Guru Audio's Guru 12 is the stand-mount model with a 125 mm polypropylene mid/bass in a steel and MDF Helmholtz enclosure.