Scansonic Q3
Scansonic’s Q3 pairs surprisingly powerful bass with a stress-free, high-resolution treble, delivering an agile, wide-screen presentation from an elegant slim floorstander. 6 Moons found its elastic low end and microdynamic finesse unusually complete for the cabinet size, while the planar-magnetic tweeter keeps transients crisp, airy and composed—even on rough recordings.
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Nicely Roasted
Sound Quality
91/100
Build Quality
87/100
Value for Money
88/100
Pros
Exceptionally powerful, elastic bass for such a compact floorstander, with output that impressed in a roughly 25m² room.
Highly resolved yet unfatiguing treble, combining quick transients and fine detail with tolerance for poor recordings.
Wide, tall soundstage and strong microdynamic expression create an engaging, cinematic presentation.
Distinctive curved cabinet and slim proportions offer unusually elegant visual appeal.
Cons
Very high playback levels with demanding bass can soften complex passages and reveal strain distortion.
The presentation is not especially deep, and large symphonic recordings can sound lighter in tonal density.
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What Reviewers Are Saying
SOUND QUALITY PERFORMANCE 91/100
The Q3 is described as an unusually airy, cohesive and complete-sounding compact floorstander, with bass weight that belies its size and a highly resolved, composed top end. Its presentation favours speed, openness and broad lateral scale over the last word in orchestral density, deep-stage projection and very-high-level bass composure.
Bass
94/100
The reviewer's strongest praise concerns the Q3's bass-to-cabinet-size ratio, calling it the best encountered in that room and finding bass output surprisingly powerful on demanding material. Bass is described as elastic and springy across a broad useful range, although the lowest notes recede at very quiet levels and extreme bass pedals can reveal strain at very high volume.
Mid
90/100
The lower midrange has enough presence to give fretless bass and thinner synthesizers welcome substance, while vocals remain properly anchored across genres. The reviewer also found that this added body did not undermine clarity or transparency, though large symphonic works can sound somewhat pastel rather than fully weighty and saturated.
Treble
94/100
The tweeter is praised for fine resolution, quick precise transients and a stress-free neutrality that remains listenable even with poor recordings. It is said to approach the refinement of much dearer beryllium-dome designs, while stopping short of the ultimate cleanliness heard from B&W's diamond tweeters.
Soundstage Imaging
90/100
The Q3 gives cinematic recordings a notably wide and tall presentation, with unusually clear definition toward the edges of the soundstage. Its spatial limitation is depth: the reviewer did not find it especially inclined to project acoustic images far behind the speaker plane.
Dynamics
88/100
Microdynamic expression is described as stronger than that of most competing speakers, supporting the Q3's agile and lively character. At neighbour-unfriendly levels, however, very powerful bass material can expose audible strain distortion.
Assessments of Build Quality, Usability, and Overall Propositions.
Build Quality
87/100
The Q3 uses woven carbon-fibre cone diaphragms, carefully designed driver baskets and an unconventional tapered cabinet with a concave rear profile intended to reduce internal standing waves. The reviewer also calls the styling distinctive and chic, though there is little commentary on finish execution, hardware or long-term durability.
Value for Money
88/100
At an asking price of about $8,000, the Q3 earns a clear recommendation from the reviewer for listeners seeking bass, resolution and unfatiguing sound in a visually elegant floorstander. Its unexpectedly capable low end was compared favourably with substantially dearer compact speakers from B&W and Magico, supporting its appeal among premium alternatives.
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Manufacturer's Description — Scansonic
The Q3 is a slim floorstander with two 5,25” carbon-coned drivers and a sealed ribbon tweeter. The Q3 is a 2.5-way speaker with the second woofer assisting in the power demanding bass region. Do not underestimate the bass performance from this sleek floorstander: It has a solid foundation a sounds a lot bigger that than it looks.
The Q3 is a 2,5-way loudspeaker, which makes the sound incredible coherent. It is truly a joy to listen to.
The Raidho inspired ribbon tweeter is an amazing feature for the price class. Bringing true high end shine into this sleek and beautiful loudspeaker.
The quality of the cabinet is astonishing and fit and finish perfect. Not something you see every day, let a lot a this price.
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Authorized dealers for Scansonic Q3
- A 10 Audio Room 4 Music — in-store — Amsterdam Nieuw-West, Noord-Holland, Netherlands (website)
- Adventures in HiFi — in-store — Chester, England, United Kingdom (website)
- Alpha High End — online and in-store — Brasschaat, Vlaams Gewest, Belgium (website)
- Anointed Soundz — in-store — Cedar Hill, Texas, United States (website)
- Art & Voice — online (website)
- AUDIO 2000 — in-store — Wuppertal, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany (website)
- Audio Absolute — in-store — Tambon Bang Khun Kong, Chang Wat Nonthaburi, Thailand (website)
- Audio Exchange — in-store — Raleigh, North Carolina, United States (website)
- Audio Vinyl — online and in-store — Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland (website)
- Audio Vision San Francisco — online and in-store — San Francisco, California, United States (website)
and 23 more verified dealers