Q Acoustic Concept 20 - how much better with dedicated stands?

[bluber]

Just having aquired the highly praised Concept 20 speakers I am on the whole very happy with their sound, although the lower midrange might sound a bit "warm" on big orchestra classical, romantic music recordings. Now, I am using these speakers with Custom Design RS 300 stands, almost completely filled with Custom Design's own filling powder. This means that not only are the speaker cabinets themselves very well isolated from resonances but also the stands - when playing I feel no vibrations from the steel columns and hear no ringing when knocking on them.

My question is: isiolation beng this good, would it really be worth the expense to switch to the dedicated QACO20 stands? Anybody having compared stands with these speakers?

 

[SiUK]

They aren't necessary or rather, not a prerequisite, but you'll nonetheless wonder whether they are given the reviews recommending them to get the best out of the Concept 20s. For me I had to get new stands anyway as my old ones didn't have the right size top plates and they made the sound a bit dull. I paid £150 for the matching QA stands and the sound became more focused and together in the mid range and tighter in the low. Whether you think such gains or worth stumping up £150 to £200 for is for you to decide. If I'd had a decent pair of stands already that were the right size I probably wouldn't have bought them to be honest...if I'd been happy with the sound that is. Then I would have spent the money on music or something else.;-)

 

[bluber]

Thank you for taking the trouble to answer. Might be a slight upgrade to original stands in the future, even though the speakers sound very good on the RS300s (driven by an Arcam FMJ 19 amp which is fed from the computer via an irDac, will soon get a new turntable.)