Quest Speakers

[kexodusc]

I've been hearing a bit about this "new brand" Quest. To my knowledge they are only available at best Best Buy (Future Shop in Canada) stores.
A few people have been posting how great and inexpensive these speakers are.
I happened to have a few days in Boston this week and checked out a set of Quest Q660, QB5's, and QT66.
The salesguy I talked to who let me demo these told me they were made by Athena, but I've since discovered they're made in Canada, and to my knowledge Athena is not a Canadian company. The parent company is Erikson, who in my opinion generally makes lower end audio equipment, but that doesn't mean anything.
The highest price speaker was $200, the lowest $100,
Upon first glance, it was easly to tell these were made of MDF, something a few other brands that sell far more expensive speakers should consider adopting...but anyway.
Nothing fancy looking about them, the tower models were quite big and bulky but an average fit and finish overall.
On to the sound test...the saleskid popped in some Dave Matthews and Aerosmith at first...I found the speakers to be flat, bloated in the bass area, and rather mediocre, but they reminded me of Cerwin Vega's in their ability to make pure noise. Maybe a decent party speaker for college kids on a budget. We switched to Norah Jones a minute later and that's where these speakers, every single model, truly sounded aweful. It sounded like we were listening to a bad FM broadcast, not a CD. Heavy bass, painful treble, completely unnatural sound. The only thing any of these three models could do was put together something resembling a stereo image. The QB5's I demoed had a woofer that actually vibrated, causing a terrible noise.
I'm not sure what people are talking about, I'd put Quest speakers right up there with Sony, Technics, and Panasonic brand loudspeakers...brutal and painful. Certainly not challenging Axiom, B&W, PSB, Paradigm etc...in their lower end models.
You pays your money, you takes your chances...I'd avoid these like the plague.
I may post a review for each model if I get time, but I probably won't bother.

[joel2762]

Sorry, but. I'm not sure what YOU'RE talking about. I am a proud owner of Quest Q610's (Main), Quest Center Channel, Quest SW-880 8", 80 Watt subwoofer. I got the sub at a crazy bargain! Got up 6 am to get it! Total came to $80 and a bit of change. I don't know what kind of amplifier they were using, or what happened to that loose woofer, but I own Quest products and they're awsome. I would like to know more about the manufacturer, but oh well. IMO Quest speakers rule, they sound very good on all types of music. And I always thought Athena was made in Canada? These Quest speakers are made in Quebec? Bay D'urf the manual says, It gives the erikson web page too which has no information about Quest but it has info about Infinity, JBL & H/K, so if Quest is related to these they must be good..

[markw]

The salesguy I talked to who let me demo these told me they were made by Athena, but I've since discovered they're made in Canada, and to my knowledge Athena is not a Canadian company.

Can't comment on Questor Erickson. Never heard 'em or even heard of 'em for that matter but I do have some info on Athena.

Athena is indeed made in Canada by API, a fairly well known and respected company. This is the same company who makes Mirage and Energy speakers. Also, they made the well respected Sound Dymanics line, which was replaced by the Athena brand about two years ago. And, yes, I do like Athena.

This might provide a little more information on them.

http://www.athenaspeakers.com/history.htm

I have no idea who Erickson is although Ericksson makes phones. I cannot say they are NOT owned by API, but I'm sure if they were, the salesman would have mentioned API, assuming he knew his anus from a hole in the ground, which I strongly doubt.

Enjoy and remember, speakers are like ice cream. Different people like different flavors.

[kexodusc]

I would open the door to the possibility that there were connection problems, my confidence in Best Buy's staff isn't the greatest, however, all speakers were running of a switchboard fed from a H/K amplifier using AR cables...certainly not high end equipment, but most would find them adequate.
It was easy to do the comparison, as JBL, Athena, and Infinity speakers were all in the same room.
Again, Best Buy's acoustic environment is terrible at best, but even a donkey could compare these speakers. The particular towers I looked at were on sale for 100 bucks, a 50% off sale because they were selling so poor and BB was dropping the line. I just checked FutureShop's webpage and a similar sale is going on in Canada on the floorstanding models. At that price these probably are a bargain, but to compare these to some of the other brands mentioned above is absurd.
The only link Erikson Consumer has with JBL, H/K, and Infinity is they are the liscenced Canadian distributor (read: importer) for these products. Those companies are part of Harman International, Quest is not. The exact relationship between Erikson and Quest I've since found to be that they share the same parent and distribution support is provided by Erikson.
I still stand behind my original review, though I'm happy you are satisfied with your purchase.
At any rate, we now have 1 vote in favour, 1 vote against.

[kexodusc]

So that's what happened to Sound Dynamics...I had a great set of pyramid shaped towers, forget the model, I got them at a clearout from my local Mirage dealer. They were great, couldn't find them anymore...It also explains why I like Athena so much.

[markw]

But, if I might hazard a guess, I'd say that the Athena line is simpler to make, market and ship. Ergo, more profit forless hassle.

Athena seems to be a more compact line, with fewer overlapping models. ... not to mention the use of 8" drivers in their towers where, I believe, the SD line used mainly 6 1/2 drivers. ...and it's easier to market 8" towers than 6 1/2" towers in the market they seem to be targeting.

I found about Athena when I tried to "grow" my pair of RTS-3's into a HT system by adding some SD towers and a center but was told thay stopped making 'em.

About a year or so later I saw AudioAdvisor blowing out some SD towers but still no center. Oh well, by then I learned to love the Athena's and the RTS 3's are doing a yeoman job in the library/guest room. ...ane my step son thinks so also.

[joel2762]

Cool, I didn't know Mirage was Canadian made. I've seen them a lot in magazines but I don't have a dealer around here so i've never had the chance to listen to them. I've heard Energy stuff though, theyre good speakers.

[3db]

I'm not sure I would buy a pair of towers with 8" woofers. They may offer more bottom end grunt but I think that imaging will begin to suffer as a result of poor dispertion due to the cabinet width. The other disadvantage of a tower
containing 8" drivers is that the cabinets themselve are bigger giving one less room for positioning. I think 6.5" woofers is the perferct compromise between bottom end grunt and imaging.

[markw]

I'm not sure I would buy a pair of towers with 8" woofers.

That's a personal preference. That's why they make all different types of speakers. FWIW, they also make a tower with only 1 woofer.

They may offer more bottom end grunt but I think that imaging will begin to suffer as a result of poor dispertion due to the cabinet width.

You obviously haven't heard them, at least in a real listening environment. You would be quite surprised. Imaging is NOT a problem with the Audition series. ...likewise bottom end grunt.

The other disadvantage of a tower containing 8" drivers is that the cabinets themselve are bigger giving one less room for positioning.

Are you serious? How much bigger? Height is not really an issue here, is it? We're only talking an additional 1.5 inches of width here, not a 15" woofer.

I think 6.5" woofers is the perferct compromise between bottom end grunt and imaging.

Again, that's a personal preference . That's why they make so many different speakers.

But, I think you would be doing yourself a disservice by excluding them for your two other stated reasons. Sometimes something can sound ungainly in theory but, in spite of what one wants to think, can work quite well. Look at Realistic's Minimus 7's.

enjoy...

[dmacgreg]

Quest has a new Web site.
Check it out at www.questhifi.com.
I have their QC5 Centre Speaker I bought at FutureShop and I like it.
Seems well-constructed and is very clear and bright and the price was right - $80.