REASONS TO BUY
Somewhat inconspicuous design
REASONS TO AVOID
Mediocre sound
No available adjustments
Q Acoustics M4 Review
A below average performer that doesn't live up to its pricetag
Credit: Q Acoustics
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Our Verdict
In our testing the Q Acoustics M4 was a below average performer, yet its price is decidedly middle of the road. If this soundbar is within your budget, you'd be much better off with the cheaper and better sounding Yamaha YAS-108. If you're just looking for a very inexpensive way to make your TV sound a bit better, the Amazon Basics 2.1 Channel can give you comparable sound at about a third of the price. Bottom line, you can get both better performance and better value for your money elsewhere.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Q Acoustics M4 isn't a particularly bad soundbar, it just doesn't live up to its price. It still offers a noticeable improvement over the quality of most built-in TV speakers, but other models do the same for much less.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Performance Comparison
The Q Acoustics M4 performed at or below average in all of our tests, putting it towards the bottom of our score sheet. you can read more about how it fared in all of our different tests below.
Sound Quality
The Q Acoustics M4 was one of the worst scoring models in our sound quality testing, picking up a 4 out of 10. While it is clearly superior to most built-in TV speakers, it lacked some of the fullness of most of the other soundbars we tested. Its bass is relatively weak, making everything sound a bit thin. The treble isn't quite as clear as that of other models, so everything from voices to music sound a bit less crisp. The dynamic range is also narrower than that of other models, robbing big cinematic moments of some of their emotional depth. Notably, the Q Acoustics M4 earned a lower scare in this metric than the Yamaha YAS-108, which costs significantly less.
The M4 sounds better than built-in TV speakers, but not as good as most soundbars on the market.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Ease of Use
The Q Acoustics M4 picked up an average 6 out of 10 in our ease of use testing. It has both a remote and control on the body of the soundbar. However, both sets of controls are fairly basic, only allowing adjustments in volume and the input source. It does not have an app, so you have to use the remote or on-bar controls. Setup was quite fast, as we had it out of the box and making noise in less than 5 minutes.
The remote is fairly basic with smallish buttons.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Sound Customization
The Q Acoustics M4 was one of the lowest scorers in our sound customization testing with a 2 out of 10. The only real adjust the soundbar lets you make is volume. If you want to customize your sound at all you'll have to do so on whatever device you're using with the Q Acoustics M4. At a minimum, we would have liked some preset sound modes that let you dampen particularly loud noises or that highlight voices.
The M4 has some simple controls on the body of the speaker.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Design/Style
The Q Acoustics M4 adopts a simple all-black appearance that will blend into most living rooms. It is a bit bulkier than most models, so it may stick out below your TV more than some other models. This likely won't be a huge deal, but if your TV sits on a stand you may be sacrificing a super streamlined look.
The M4's inputs.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Value
Unfortunately, the Q Acoustics M4's list price of $350 does not line up with its performance. The Yamaha YAS-108 sounds significantly better for just $200. Bottom line, you can get better performance for less.
Conclusion
The Q Acoustics M4 isn't a particularly bad soundbar, but you can get much better models for the same price or less. Therefore the Q Acoustics M4 doesn't get a recommendation from us.
—
Max Mutter and Steven Tata
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