Test verdict:
I would save and buy the Quadral Platinum M4 which is the real find of this test. the M4 really does line up its ducks in a row. Listen to from slightly of axis it has a neutral overall tonal balance, extended but fleet of foot bass and sparkling treble, but it’s the way these are melded into a musically engaging whole that makes the M4 the winner of this test.
The big disappointment of this test was the Paradigm Studio 60 , it was the most expensive, but no speaker with so broad a hole in its mid-range output can expect to win a test against well designed product with its essentially flat output
Quadral Platinum M4 floorstand speakers comp/chamber
QD 11 PLAT M4
NZ$
2,995.00
pr
(incl. GST)
Our aim is for you to be able to enjoy quadral loudspeakers in your home for a long time..
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Quadral Platinum M4 easily wins multi-way floorstander test
Tonal neutrality, tight but extended bass and high resolution make Quadral Platinum M4 the stand-out choice.....
HI-FI WORLD 04/2011 - Test for PLATINIUM M4
….., now the tables have turned. We are getting accurate loudspeakers from Germany whilst producing inaccurate ones here in UK. Most UK cabinets of this price will have a vinyl veneer wrap of conservative appearance and spray black drive unit surrounds. It’s a fair fit for most homes, but hardly as eye catching as the quadrals.
….., now the tables have turned. We are getting accurate loudspeakers from Germany whilst producing inaccurate ones here in UK. Most UK cabinets of this price will have a vinyl veneer wrap of conservative appearance and spray black drive unit surrounds. It’s a fair fit for most homes, but hardly as eye catching as the quadrals.
…, the M4s came across as remarkably even natured and completely without shout. In between the Platinnum M4’s extremes, however, lies a supremely civil midband, far better worked out than most. Vocals rang out clearly centre stage, back in the plane of the loudspeakers as the M4s are not falsely pfojective (there’s no midband lift). The loudspeakes charm by their easy nature that presents music in a simple, unforced but convincing fashion....
.... the M4s are full of life, no one could accuse them of being sluggish or limp. Lower strings, notably cello, sounded fruity and this helped to a nice, large presentation, …
CONCLUSION: German engineering shines through with quadral’s Platinum M4s. Now we have a confident German industry producing excellent hi-fi products (…)
With the Platinum M4s quadral do an excellent job and although they will not shout in a show room battle, they will beguile, enough to make UK friends I believe. These are smooth, accurate and well made loudspeakers that work well with all types of music – at a great price.
- Smooth, easy sound
- Eye catching style
- Slickly finished
Verdict
Smartly finished, eye-catching speaker with an even, accurate sound. Real fidelity at an affordable price.
M4 reviewers quote: ..."Sophisticated, rich in details as well as naturalistic sound at striking accuracy.” quadral`s newest line of speakers, PLATINUM M, delivers a virtual live performance in your living room. Large, lowdistortion cone chassis with aluminum membranes as well as an innovative ring transducer with titanium membrane allow superb dynamics as well as articulate details and imaging. PLATINUM is Quadrals next step above their Argentum range and introduces their famous compresion chamber concept for deeper, rich, textured bass responce, compare the statistic for its size. #M4 is the smaller of the 2 floorstand models @ 1001mm high in the PLATINUM range The PLATINUM range includes: 2x floorstand, 1x bookshelf, 1x centre & 1x subwoofer. quadral’s PLATINUM M family displays unique harmony in exquisite speaker technology. A live experience is the ideal it competes with. With every pitch and any instrumentation, it fills the room with lifelike sound. Low-vibration housings, enlarged drive magnets, and improved sound membranes made of aluminium bring life to turbulent bass runs and flawless, exhilarating middle tones, and above all, quadral’s new RiCom M ring transducer shines, with its ultra-fine resolution. Reliving the atmosphere of a live concert requires perfected technology: PLATINUM M. Whether with analogue hi-fi stereo or digital surround sound, your home becomes a VIP box. PLATINUM M’s sound transports you right to the concert or into the thick of the film action. The speakers come in high-gloss piano black
Features
Specifications
Reviews
Awards
High-end RiCom M ring transducer technology for superlative high-range reproduction. Ultra-fast membrane with broad emission characteristics
Flow-optimized ABS cages
Light, stiff aluminium membranes in combination with strong drive magnets ensure the highest pulse fidelity
Unique compression-chamber system for almost unbelievably controlled bass volume
Expensive crossover components with special ring coils and film capacitors
High-end RiCom M ring transducer technology for superlative high-range reproduction. Ultra-fast membrane with broad emission characteristics Flow-optimized ABS cages Light, stiff aluminium membranes in combination with strong drive magnets ensure the highest pulse fidelity Unique compression-chamber system for almost unbelievably controlled bass volume Expensive crossover components with special ring coils and film capacitors Base plate with spikes for acoustic decoupling from floor Central speaker with excellent speech intelligibility and runtime correction Gold-plated bi-wiring terminals with cable bridges Piano finish of black high-gloss varnish polished several times In surround mode, the PLATINUM M glistens with SUB 88 and SUB 700 Covers are held secure by magnets — with the accent on design standards
Type: 3-way floorstand
Design principle: compresion chamber/bass reflex
Nominal/music power: 140/200 W
Frequency response: 28Hz - 50kHz
Crossover frequency (Hz): 280/3000 Hz
Efficiency (dB/1W/1m): 90 dB
Impedance (Ohm): 4...8
Tweeter: RiCom-M
Midrange: 135 mm Ø Alu
Woofer: 2 x 170 mm Ø Alu
Cabinet size: 1001H x 210W x 317,5D mm
Weight: 22,4 kg
The Platinum M4 makes immediately obvious that it has a spectacular presence and extent of low frequencies.
High Fidelity (Greece) - BEST CHOICE award with 97% score rating!
High Fidelity (Greece) - Editors Choice award
The Platinum M4 was a pleasant surprise sound and of course distinguished for quality of construction. It will not say no to many dB, the rock bass and electronics, but also respects and other types of music thanks to the abundant presence in the middle frequencies, the very good analysis, the accuracy of the stage and very good openness and inseparable.
Is this not what it is all about?
Quadral is a sophisticated large company from Germany that combines business with the qualitative character of the large range, as happens, say the Klipsch and Monitor Audio in U.S. and G.B respectively.
The speaker that we received for testing is the very best hi-fi series Platinum M, which lies just below the hi-end series of Aurum, and the least we can say is that we were impressed with the workmanship.
The sizes can not be hidden so the Platinum M4 is a three-way loudspeaker with two woofers in parallel, what should one say about promising dynamic range bass. At the same time, charging includes compression chamber in front of the loudspeakers and very large hole in the back, creating an unusual and striking picture on the front with metal grilles.
The M4's design is good and there are no annoying colors. The lacquer finish is enough quality in standard category, and the large cloth standing in place with magnets for a cleaner look.
The M4 uses custom speakers from specially treated aluminum and a very special tweeter with Titanium ring as radiator and a centrally located foam which makes it show a little strange and unusual picture, is completed with double metallic rivet in front of him in the role of dispersions. The speaker has also an independent second flange wood joined with four metal legs close to the main cabin and accept spikes.
Listen
The Platinum M4 makes immediately obvious that it has a spectacular presence and extent of low frequencies.Watching more, it becomes obvious that the German speaker low freguency is free and spread out with a characteristic calm in space.
Equally unusual is the treble, and these with some fine tuning traces of the titanium but obviously designed with a more "free" behavior time domain, as illustrated from the very airy, extended and detailed sound.
Eventually, all this operate for the speaker benefit of the midrange, which is clearly the best that heard from metal diaphragms in this test. It has smoothness deep, rich texture, color correct and very low deformation is also fast and quiet, and ultimately breathes a slide that did not expect to collect from a mainstream product.
The soundstage is also charismatic, and combines the large size and holographic imaging with excellent focus and depth of almost perfect, with clear levels and rich information space. The rhythm finally captured with almost perfect way.
Finally
The Platinum M4 was a pleasant surprise sound and of course distinguished for quality of construction. It will not say no to many dB, the rock bass and electronics, but also respects and other types of music thanks to the abundant presence in the middle frequencies, the very good analysis, the accuracy of the stage and very good openness and inseparable.
Is this not what it is all about?
PLATINUM M4 became the odds-on test winner, ...“
Quote: „Sophisticated, rich in details as well as naturalistic sound at striking accuracy.”
„... the quadral could give a proof of how well this works in practise. By using the same sound examples because of the secured adjustment the quadral featured the maximal accuracy and fewest typical loudspeaker sound. Temporarily we had the impression of prohibitive, membran-controlled active speakers. Only the Canton sounded simimlar homogenous and free of distortion but it finally had to surrender to the ultra precision of the quadral. The harmonic combination of its three branches continued in all the rest of the regions so that PLATINUM M4 became the odds-on test winner, ...“
Conclusion:
Sound: First class
Hi-Fi News Group Test review on Quadral M4
All five test pieces sounded better on the M4 than via any of the others in this group.
Quadral Platinum M4- Sound quality score: 85%
Paradigm Reference Studio 60 - Sound quality score: 75%
Mordant & Short Aviano - Sound quality score: 73%
Dali Lector 8- Sound quality score: 78%
A mere glance at the Platinum M4 is sufficient to identify it as a Quadral,the bass drivers recessed behind aluminium slats being a clear visual cue, whether the speaker carries the Quadral name or that of its prestige Aurum brand. It isn’t just a cosmetic feature but a part of Quadral’s enhanced form of reflex loading – there’s a large port at the rear of the cabinet – which really does perform differently if the relatively flat impedance curve is anything to judge by.
A four-driver three-way, the Platinum M4 matches its twin metal-coned bass drivers to a similar metal-coned midrange unit, above which is not the ‘ribbon’ (actually leaf) tweeter we’re used to seeing in Aurum models but Quadral’s RiCom-M ring tweeter, which is unusual for its annular diaphragm being of titanium. Quadral claims that it produces character-free treble output with broad dispersion.
As supplied, the Platinum M4 follows established Quadral practice by having a detachable plinth without tappings on the underside for the fitment of spikes. But the threads in the underside of the cabinet itself will accept optional M6 spikes.
In my review of the Aurum Orkan VIII I said it was ‘tonally neutral, has tuneful, well controlled bass and… an unusually clean and clear treble’... Guess what: I’m going to say broadly similar things about the Platinum M4 – sheer clarity The Platinum M4’s commendably flat frequency response favours no part of the frequency spectrum, the extreme treble lift easily countered by listening a little off-axis, and the bass, though extended, is just like the Orkan VIII’s: notably well controlled, hangover free and tuneful. I have no reservations about the overall sound quality being less than the sum of its parts and this can be summed up in one word: clarity. Whatever you play, the M4 delivers insight, and with that insight comes deeper musical satisfaction.
‘Honky Tonk Women’ had unmatched brio; the many strands of ‘Well Well Well’ were meticulously unpicked but its rhythm was never more infectious; the Ravel sparkled; Scheherazade was spacious yet focused and hit like a sledgehammer; and the understated ‘Poetspeak’ simply enchanted.
Quadral Platinum M4 easily wins multi-way floorstander test
Tonal neutrality, tight but extended bass and high resolution make Quadral Platinum M4 the stand-out choice.....
Speakers on test:
Quadral Platinum M4- Sound quality score: 85%
Paradigm Reference Studio 60- Sound quality score: 75%
Mordant & Short Aviano - Sound quality score: 73%
Dali Lector 8- Sound quality score: 78%
ELAC FS 189- Sound quality score: 83%
Teufel Ultima 40 - Sound quality: 65%
