Australian loudspeaker, amplifier and accessories manufacturer Quest Engineering, while being a relative newcomer to the South African audio market, has been designing and manufacturing professional and commercial products in Australia for the better part of two decades. I, for one, was unfamiliar with Quest prior to Prolight and Sound in Frankfurt but the more I learn about them and the more I get to hear their products, the more it becomes evident that they are a quality company that has untapped potential not just in South Africa, but worldwide.

Just taking a look at current Quest Engineering news it’s plain to see that their products are catching on. This isn’t just another company looking to sell their latest knock-off line array – they don’t even manufacture one – but rather they seem to focus on what they are good at which are quality products aimed at specific applications.

The overwhelming majority of Quests products have the designation “compact’. But don’t let this give you the impression that their performance is small in any way. This is their forte’: big sound in a small footprint. Accordingly, research and development is a huge part of what they do. In fact, Quest has been manufacturing products for other industry brands for many years including one-off prototypes to custom bracketing to full production runs. The fact that they are the only company of their kind in Australia with a purpose built, anechoic chamber and Klippel test machine instils huge confidence in me that they know what they are doing.

The HPI110 is part of their latest HPI line of compact passive loudspeakers aimed at small footprint installations that pack a punch. It also has a few tricks up its sleeve. Let’s take a look.

Features

The HPI-110 is a compact passive loudspeaker aimed at greater voice clarity thanks to, in no small part, the HPI system which we will cover shortly. At first glance the speaker gives off a modern, sophisticated vibe because of its well-engineered lines and sleek, futuristic look. It is definitely a unique looking speaker. The enclosure is loaded with a 10′ high power neodymium woofer and a 1.4′ exit neodymium compression driver. Power handling comes in at impressive 600w RMS at 8 Ohms and can pump out a max SPL of 130dB at 1m. The HPI-110 has a typical sensitivity of 98dB at 1kHz and finally, two parallel Neutrik Speakon connectors are found on the rear panel.

The sturdy steel wrap around handle acts as structural reinforcement for the speaker, while also serving as an extremely robust rigging point and also assisting in vibration reduction.

Probably the most interesting aspect of this speaker is the engineering that went into its high frequency waveguide to increase voice intelligibility. Quest has identified that that one of the biggest challenges facing the reproduction of clear voice in most venues is the interfering effects of primary wall reflections back to the listening area. The theory goes that if the listener’s ears receive equal or more reverberated than direct sound from the source (the loudspeaker system), intelligibility suffers. This is due to the delay in time between the direct, non-reflected sound from the loudspeakers and the sound reflected off of wall boundaries. Residual reverberant decay due to further reflections compounds the issue.

To combat this, Quest has come up with a specialised, asymmetrical waveguide that provides 30 degrees of horizontal dispersion at the top of the flare and 60 degrees at the base. This focuses the higher frequencies towards the floor at a wider angle while keeping wall reflections to a minimum. It also keeps high frequency throw focussed to the rear of the venue due to the 30 degree portion of the waveguide. The result is greater overall clarity, extended throw and a speaker that sounds great at any point in the venue. Furthermore, with the HPI-111 variant, the waveguide can be rotated 90 degrees for horizontal installation and there are multiple rigging systems available to meet almost any installation need.

Note: The HPI-111 is the 10′ model that can rotate. The driver in the 110 is too big to rotate to horizontal. The 111 has a smaller driver and a little less power and the flare is a wider dispersion. The HPI-110 is configured to operate in an array of up to three boxes or hung as a two box vertical combination. The HPI-111 also features a full face grill making it more subtle for architectural aesthetics.

How does it sound?

I was able to check out a HPI-110 in action at the offices of South African Quest distributors Tadco in Johannesburg at the courtesy of their Strategic Marketing head Josh Oates. The system set up for this review was a single HPI-110, two HPI-212S – both powered by a Camco amplifier – and fed by a Digico SD11 by microphone and music played from an iPod.

My first impression when hearing the HPI-110, despite listening in an untreated smallish warehouse, was that the top-end was very smooth and unobtrusive. It was as if we were listening solely to the point source without much interference. The midrange was present and up-front albeit without becoming strident. In particular, the vocals were very clear and controlled and the breathy nuances came through. Of course paired with the HPI-212S subwoofers, the sound was quite simply huge. Playing around with the crossover, we settled on 120Hz which gave the system a nice bump in the punchy zone where the kick drum resides.

Turning our attention to the throw and vocal clarity of the system, we opened the rear loading door to the warehouse and pointed the HPI-110 outdoors. Josh assured me that the throw of the speaker was incredible and after walking around 75 metres out, ending up on the other side of the road across from their parking lot, the results were impressive. There was very little drop-off in terms of vocal clarity and level and I was left pretty amazed at how no matter where we stood, the vocal clarity didn’t suffer at all. Quest’s promises were clearly delivered.

The rigging is also quite elaborate for the HPI series, called the “Quick Rig Series’. Check this pdf out to get an idea of the versatility here: http://www.questaudio.com.au/downloads/HPI-Quick-Rig-Reference-Sheet.pdf
A full manual here: http://www.questaudio.com.au/downloads/hpi-rigging-manual.pdf

The wrap

Quest may just be getting going here in South Africa but after hearing the HPI-110, it is clear they are on the right track to establishing themselves as a strong contender in the market of high power, compact loudspeaker systems. The HPI-110 delivered, as far as I’m concerned, in all fronts and despite the waveguide trickery they employ to control dispersion, it is not at the expense of fidelity. They simply sound great and that’s the bottom line.

Note: Just as some background info… each Quest product is designed around solving a particular audio problem or situation. Consequently each product will have a particular niche where the performance will be particularly good for the price.