QUAD L-ite & QUAD 9L2: In Search of Compact Speaker for Tiny Rooms｜Part 1

【Compact Speaker Search for Tiny Rooms】
QUAD｜Wharfedale｜JAMO｜audiopro｜EPOS

↑ To put it very loosely, the previous entry amounted to saying that pastel_piano was going to buy the QUAD L-ite, and that is precisely how a small but precious few readers took it — I even received the wonderfully kind words that they were looking forward to reading my impressions… and yet, despite all that, I still find myself hesitating to actually pull the trigger on the purchase. I’ve gone back to the shop yet again to impose on them for another listen, switching between the QUAD L-ite and a few other speakers, but I still can’t quite get it to sit right with me.

Because when you compare it to the 11L2 from the same QUAD range… leaving aside the smaller cabinet size, when you ask whether the L-ite distils everything that made the 11L I reviewed some years back and the current 11L2 & 12L2 so good — the answer is, well, a bit iffy, really. It’s not so much that the character points in a different direction, more that this thing seems to have been designed with absolutely nothing in mind except use as a surround satellite speaker.

The tonal colour and character are broadly similar, but what’s missing is that sense of ease — that effortless quality — that the QUAD 11L & 12L have in abundance. It has a sort of small-engine-revving-hard feel to it (if that makes any sense), which isn’t bad in itself, but I can’t shake the feeling that anyone who owns an 11L, 11L2, 12L, or 12L2 would give the L-ite a warm but slightly condescending “Oh, nice that you bought one of those, how lovely~” sort of look. There’s an uncrossable wall there, and I feel it keenly. The finish, though — the finish was absolutely gorgeous, I have to say, quite strikingly so.

The QUAD L-ite earned a five-star rating from the British magazine What Hi-Fi? (in the context of a 5.1-channel set review), so the sense that it could draw out real musicality is certainly appealing. Though in the less-than-ideal conditions of a shop floor, I couldn’t quite get a proper read on it. Incidentally, this is how What Hi-Fi? described it in their review.

“Satellites are detailed and dynamic”, “fine dynamic ability and musical talent”, What HiFI November 2005.

Well, on the way home I was turning all sorts of things over in my mind, and when I got back and drifted through the seas of the internet, I found there are plenty of other interesting speakers out there. The overseas contingent in particular seems to be overflowing with small, inexpensive, tempting little speakers. Not that I can actually audition any of them, so this is pure fantasy, of course. In any case, below are the speakers that caught my eye.

QUAD 9L2

A speaker sized to fill the gap between the QUAD L-ite and the QUAD 11L2. The 9L2 is, for whatever reason, not imported into Japan, but its home market list price is £250. Unlike the L-ite, it appears to have been designed not solely as a surround satellite but also as a proper two-channel compact bookshelf speaker. The woofer unit, at 10cm, feels slightly small relative to the cabinet size and is shared with the L-ite — which gives me a little pause — but with an enclosure of 248 × 152 × 205 mm, a step up in all dimensions (roughly 1.6 times the volume by simple calculation), one would expect a significant improvement in low-frequency weight (50 Hz – 28 kHz) and overall sense of ease, even if it doesn’t quite reach the level of the 11L2.

Personally I think I probably prefer the size of the L-ite, but the fact that nobody else has the 9L2 tickles my awkward, contrarian streak. Incidentally, What Hi-Fi? gave the 9L2 four stars — a review that feels somehow lukewarm.

Later note: despite writing all this, things came full circle, and five years later I ended up buying the QUAD L-ite2, the successor to the QUAD L-ite.

【Compact Speaker Search for Tiny Rooms】
QUAD｜Wharfedale｜JAMO｜audiopro｜EPOS