Hi Paul,
That's a tough one, although I have had Q3's and Q5's here in the same room as the S5II's and S7's. I always felt both the Q3's and Q5's were an overall high level sound producer than the original S5. But then with the new S5II's and 7's I felt like they didn't give up anything to the Q3's and had a much fuller bodied sound, which I felt helped, along with the new tweeters, to "calm things down".
My experience has been with the Q3's/Q5's was that amplification, room (most important) and entire system matching was so crucial to get the top end to my liking. In my room, which actually is a bit "over dampened" I never feel any excess high end energy with the S5II's or the S7's, not matter what electronics I drive them with. I actually don't even notice that the S5II's/S7's have tweeters, I just hear music and can tell nothing to indicate whether notes are coming from the midrange or the tweeter, it's just open, extended on the top music.
So hard hearing systems in different rooms and with different sources and systems to draw any accurate conclusions. I only understand what something sounds like once I get something in my room and live with it for a while. I also realize if I move that same exact set up to a different room, I might have a completely different perspective on everything. Sorry....very nebulous answer.
