Best Buys – Audio & AV – July 2019

26 http://www.avhub.com.au

SYSTEMS &

SOLUTIONS

S

ound+Image magazine, our sister title,

reviewed Questyle’s fine $1999 QP2R

portable player last year (and you can read

that full review at avhub.com.au/qp2r).

To recap briefly, the QP2R is a portable audio

player, but it’s one that produces very high audio

quality, and is able to play high-res audio files that

go far beyond CD quality. It has various rivals in

this portable, but its abilities were recognised by

hifi+ magazine in the UK, for one, who made it a

Product of the Year.

What to do with the QP2R when you get

home? Its talents are too good to enjoy only when

you’re out and about. So Questyle has a small

dock available to give full-size connection to a hi-fi

system, and now it also has this remarkable unit,

the Super Hub SHB 2, which together with the

QP2R player forms what Questyle calls a ‘Super

Source System’. And it goes far beyond the most

visually obvious element, the ‘dock’, a cradle that

holds the QP2R player. The SHB 2 also acts as

a DAC which can apply high-quality conversion

to other digital sources, with volume control

that makes it a preamplifier also (it even has one

analogue input). And as a final surprise, there’s

some wireless magic going on as well.

EQUIPMENT

The QP2R player has a USB Type-C socket on

the bottom for charging the internal battery and

for transferring music to (and from) the unit, so

of course there’s a USB Type-C plug fitted into

the SHB 2, in the middle of the cradle that holds

the QP2R player in a position where it is canted

slightly backwards. The cradle closely hugs the

player, so there’s very little stress on the plug or

socket. That’s good design, since they are the most

fragile parts of most modern equipment.

This dock sits in the solid Super Hub, which

is some 33cm wide, 22cm deep and less than 6cm

tall, apart from where the cradle rises above the

body of the unit. There are three ‘classic’-style

toggle switches on the front panel: one for power,

one to switch on the USB DAC function (having

it selectable prevents any USB noise when it’s

not in use), and one is to switch on its 5GHz

wireless transmission module.

That wireless module allows the unit to

transmit music wirelessly to a Questyle wireless

receiver. The idea might be to keep the QP2R

and the Super Hub near at hand, while the CMA

Twelve wireless receiver, a separate unit, can be

next to your hi-fi. The CMA Twelve is itself a

DAC, preamp and headphone amplifier — indeed

it is Questyle’s flagship DAC/headphone amp,

and its name celebrates the 12 years since the

invention of the Current Mode Amplification with

which it, previous flagships, and the preampli-

fier of the Super Hub have all been equipped.

And in case you’re wondering why you would

HIGH-RES WIRELESS DOCK/PREAMP/SUPERHUB

QUESTYLE Super Hub SHB 2 high-res wireless dock/preamp/hub

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The Super Hub SHB 2 takes Questyle’s award-winning portable

audio player and delivers its class-leading high-res audio to

your hi-fi — and it can even do this wirelessly, if you so desire.