Positioning the 5020 in the listening room on the stands is no problem. If the speakers are angled slightly towards the listening position, so that you can just see the inside, the result is a beautiful stage image in width and depth. It is important to ensure that the loudspeakers do not tilt. The height-adjustable spikes help to ensure a firm stand. When speakers are new out of the box, it takes a few hours for the drivers' mechanics in particular to reach their one hundred percent performance. i-fidelity.net takes this into account in every test and gives the components the necessary break-in time. Once this procedure is completed, nothing stands in the way of serious listening.
Jazz Is A Spirit" by Jakob Manz begins in slow motion. The depth of the drums is surprising; when the bass joins in, the amazement is perfect. Not only is the reproduction convincing in terms of volume for a loudspeaker of this "size", but above all the clear contours are unusual. This is a feature that has so far been almost exclusively provided by the KEF LS50 Meta, which costs 400 euros more. The sound colour reproduction of the trumpet is also impressive. What makes listening to music so exciting is the ability of a loudspeaker to realistically reproduce the sound image in the room, i.e. to "place" voices and instruments where there is actually no loudspeaker. The 5020 delivers a result that is absolutely above average for its class.
This makes it ideal for reproducing the intense music of the vocal ensemble Voces8. "The Veil Opens" begins with floating tones of the piano, then the voices united into a choir discreetly enter and the Q Acoustics creates a believable atmosphere. Nothing sounds miniaturised or even slightly anaemic. Some other speakers in this class make a spectacle out of any kind of music due to their acoustic tuning. The 5020 doesn't do that. On the contrary, its neutral and accurate performance is reminiscent of much more expensive monitors. This absence of acoustic exaggeration also means that you can listen to music for a long time - and that is meant in every sense - with such a speaker.
No question of genre
Electronic fireworks from the Pet Shop Boys, of course, do not force the 5020 to give up either. However, "I Will Fall" has what it takes to demand everything from the mid-bass driver. As long as you don't overdo it with the volume, the 5020 pumps an impressive amount of energy into the listening room. No frequency range overpowers the others, so that the phase rotations added during the recording create interesting effects in the room imaging. The track "The Grants" by Lana del Rey has a lot of reverberation, which you can hear under all circumstances, but rarely with this clarity, because it is simply so precise.
