MB Quart has long been a name to be reckoned with in the high-end home and car loudspeaker market. Although they've been through numerous ownerships in the last decade or so, I heard they still produce a very fine product, and I was eager to listen to their $1,499 flagship set of components, the QSD 216. But first, I checked out what was inside the moderately large box sitting in front of me.
IMPRESSION
After slipping the cardboard sleeve off the container, I was greeted with: a tri-lingual owner's/installation manual, a set of full-sized, self-adhesive patterns for woofer and tweeter cutouts (the self-adhesive part is a nice idea), a warranty card and a pair of MB Quart decals. The manual is very complete and has both text and pictographs to assist the installer and answer most any question that may arise during the installation.
At this point, I must say I didn't receive any kind of white paper or roster of the QSD 216's special features. Nowhere on the box or in the manual does it specify what the cones, frames or motors of the woofers are made of. Same goes for the tweeters, so I had to do a little research to find out some of the cool features used in this system. Come on guys, you've got to be proud of these things -- so tell us a little about them!
The 160mm (6 1/2") woofers for this set incorporate a die-cast aluminum frame with multiple bolt patterns to fit just about any factory pattern you may have. MB Quart devised the woofer baskets for the QSD line with Balanced Temperature Technology (BTT), which, in the case of the woofers, use integral cooling ribs for improved heat convection of the neodymium motor structure encased within. And, because of the small but powerful neo motor, the mounting depth is kept to a shallow 69.5mm (2 13/16") and can be further reduced 12mm (1/2") using the included adapter ring. The woofer cones are also unique in that they wear a pure titanium powder coating over polypropylene to increase their strength-to-weight ratio while reducing unwanted harmonics and acoustical distortion. Getting power to the voice coil, gold-plated terminals built onto the frame allow for various size wire and different terminal styles.
The tweeters are of the titanium-dome variety and only 18.5mm (3/4") deep and just over 2" (54mm) in diameter with a dome diameter of 25mm (1"). BTT is present in the tweeters as each is encapsulated within specially designed aluminum housings. The system includes three different mounting schemes: flush mount, angled flush mount and surface mount.
The crossovers also employ a version of BTT. Here the PCB is mounted to a cast aluminum base plate, allowing the temperature variations between the different components to optimally balance out. This also permits all components to work at the same, exactly pre-defined temperature. The PCB holds aluminum-bodied, 1% mil-spec, 10-watt resistors for tweeter attenuation and a light bulb (not something you see very often anymore) for tweeter protection. Attenuation can be ordered up in 1.5dB increments up to -6dB. These crossovers are also bi-amp/bi-wire capable, which would be nice in a high-end installation. All in all, they're quite impressive with their large-gauge coils, elegant layout and clear covers. Due to their size and appearance, they're not something you're going to want to stash away in a door or shove under a dashboard. They should be mounted where they're accessible for tuning and safe from damage.
That pretty much sums up the contents of the box, so let the listening begin!
CONCLUSION
If your musical tastes tend more toward electric, as opposed to acoustic music, you'll probably love these speakers. The anomalies I noted could be lessened -- or eliminated entirely -- with correct placement, quality installation and maybe a bit of judicious equalization. The build quality of these speakers is superb, which helps justify their steep price of $1,499, but there are other speakers at much lower prices that rival, if not surpass, the performance of these. As always, the caveat here is: Listen, listen and listen some more before buying any speaker set. Remember, it's your money, and your ears!