Q Acoustics M2 Review (2024)

The Q Acoustic M2 soundbar, which is technically a soundbase designed to sit directly underneath your TV, is a perfectly adequate way to bring better quality audio to your home theater setup. But even at the relatively modest price of $349.99, everything from the M2's design to its overall performance feels a bit dated and underwhelming. The system has a built-in subwoofer, but doesn't really sound like it. The remote feels cheap, and there's no LED readout to guide you through the few source modes and EQ settings offered. For the price, the audio is about what you might expect, but you can find similarly priced options that offer more.

Design

The Q Acoustics M2 is a chunky, not terribly attractive hunk of 3.7-by-21.7-by-13.3-inch (HWD) black plastic and speaker grille. It's designed to hold the base of your TV on its top panel, provided the edge of the base doesn't pass beyond the edge of the speaker. It can support up to 55 pounds.

Along the top panel, there's an NFC pairing zone and three buttons—a central power/source button and two volume buttons. There are two digital inputs (HDMI ARC and optical), and two analog inputs (RCA and 3.5mm) on the back. Ideally, all of your video outputs can connect to the TV via HDMI, then you send the TV's HDMI output into the M2's HDMI ARC input (this is also how you can control the soundbase with your TV's remote). It only ships with an HDMI cable; there are no optical or analog audio cables included.

The rear panel also houses a USB port (for service only), a connection for the included power cable (there are three cables included for the various types of wall jacks), and two switches. One switch, labeled On, In+, or In-, refers to the placement of the speaker—specifically, whether it's on the cabinet/under a TV, inside a large cabinet, or inside a small cabinet. These settings help the M2 output the appropriate audio for where you have it placed. The second switch is for volume setup: 1 for standard TVs (this is most likely the one you'll need) and 2 for quiet TVs. Check the manual to see which setting to use.

Switching between inputs is a relatively simple process, but Q Acoustics makes it less easy than it could be. The included remote feels cheap—a lightweight, membrane button throwback. Pressing Source switches between all of your options—HDMI, Optical, Bluetooth, or Analog (both 3.5mm and RCA inputs are on the same button)—but the only visual indicator is the color-coded input/power button on the M2. It glows purple for HDMI, green for Analog, white for Optical, and blue for Bluetooth. That's easy enough to remember, but an LED readout like most of the competition has would be a lot easier.

There's no real visual marker for the volume level, either. Mute will make the input/power button blink. The EQ button switches to and from Movie EQ mode, but your only visual is the yellow flashing of the power button for on, or yellow followed by red for off. This, along with the switches on the back instead of buttons on the remote controlling certain functions, feels quite dated.

Internally, the M2 packs a 1.1-inch BMR driver for the left and right channels. BMR stands for balanced mode radiator, which means instead of having dedicated tweeters and woofers, all of the audio is sent through a single driver that can handle the the bulk of the full range of frequencies. BMR drivers also distribute sound in a less directional manner, meaning they'll more easily fill the room (each driver purportedly has a 180-degree range of audio dispersion). In addition to the dual BMRs, there's a built-in downward-firing subwoofer, but you can't adjust it with dedicated bass level controls.

Performance

On Chapter 13 of the Pacific Rim Blu-ray, with the Movie EQ mode enabled, the rumble of explosions and massive monsters stomping around and getting blown up is intense, but it's not quite on the level of some true 2.1 systems we've tested with separate subwoofers. Here, the bass is powerful, but refined. The speaker gets loud, but not to the insane levels that much of the competition does. Without EQ enabled there's a little less punch to the lows and a little less clarity to the dialogue, but neither mode sounds bad.

On Chapter 2 of the Casino Royale Blu-ray, the gunshots pack some powerful force with the EQ enabled, and moments of dialogue later in the film are clear, but there's little here that suggests a wide soundscape, or that there's a true subwoofer present. For the price, the M2 delivers solid audio, with a focus on clarity, but if you're after serious rumble for your movies, it's pretty modest.

For music, on tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the M2 delivers decent bass depth at moderate volumes (with the Movie EQ disabled). Using an iPhone 6s as the source, the audio flirts with distortion beyond mid-level volumes. Instead of distorting, digital signal processing kicks in and the audio is drastically altered. At top volumes, the bass is thinned out dramatically. At lower volumes, the bass seems more powerful, but there's something missing—as if the subwoofer is really more of a woofer, and we're not getting the true bass depth. The drivers also don't quite give us the higher frequency clarity we like to hear. It's not a muffled sound, but it isn't the most crisp we've heard, either.

Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, sounds mids-heavy, and thins out a bit in the high-mids and highs. The drums on this track don't sound thunderous like they can on bass-forward systems—not a bad thing, necessarily, but they don't really pack much of a punch at all. It's Callahan's baritone vocals that sound deepest here, which means much of the bass presence is in the lows and low-mids, and little of it resides in the sub-bass realm. The strum of the guitar sound more mids-heavy than bright, and the higher register percussive attacks seem dulled.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop gets less high-mid punch than we'd prefer, but it does receive a little added thump in the lows and low-mids. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with modesty—at higher volume, they're overshadowed by the drum beat and the vocals, which are delivered with solid clarity and no added sibilance.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound better than any other genre. The M2 does little to tamp down the natural brightness of the brass, higher register strings, and vocals, and the rich presence in the lows and low-mids brings the lower register instrumentation forward in the mix, as it did with Callahan's vocals.

Conclusions

If the Q Acoustics M2 were intended primarily for music, we'd be talking about how its sound signature is a little peculiar, sculpted and dulled in places by digital signal processing, especially at top volumes. For movies, the audio is clear enough, but lacks the exciting rumble and extra crispness much of the competition offers. Ultimately, there are stronger soundbars in this general price range. Consider the JBL Bar 3.1 or the Polk Audio Signa S1, both of which come with dedicated subwoofers. And if you have more room in your budget, the Sony HT-NT5 and Sonos Playbase are higher-end options that definitely won't disappoint.