… including our 3rd factory tour which has this photo of the X3 in their native habitat at the factory. By August 2023 so well past the X3's first Munich 2022 sighting, a review pair to Ireland became reality. Were you wondering how 3 x 4½" drivers stack up on shared cone surface for the 'half-way' bandwidth? To not quite 8 inches. That's significantly less than the 10" to 12" woofer we'd expect from a competing 3-way. Multi-paralleled small drivers have been Michael Børresen's preference since his early Raidho/Scansonic days. Only the latest Scansonic Q models from a contract engineer finally adopt a classic 3-way division of labor.
In today's Børresen catalogue the 2½-way approach with parallel filters—series filters in the pricier ranges—remains the silver bullet. It eliminates a high pass on the midrange but our amplifier sees a lower impedance in the bass. And to arrive at an 11"-equivalent woofer, this 4½" driver concept needs six moons as here in the half-million-euro M6; and sufficient vertical clearance to accommodate them. If that means a clean dozen of ultra-costly 3D-printed zirconium baskets per pair, so be it. According to Credit Suisse, China alone hosts 6.2 million millionaires, second only to the United States. Once we get to billionaires, China still counts 969; enough to sell a few pairs of M6 to them. And that's just one market. There's method to Børresen's math; including the group's new brand Axxess to "manufacture high-quality speakers, amplifiers and cables that dealers can sell at more modest prices than Ansuz, Aavik and Børresen equipment".
Something for everyone is the motto. Back on pleasure on investment, our door bell rings. It's our trusty postman with Ivette's Amazon delivery. He asks whether Sir is in. Having a strange name comes with benefits. He's got something to show His Lordship. Ivette whisks him to my office. Chai Baba the cat growls. The man beams. He just received his used Omega Speedmaster 'Moon' watch from Germany in the mail. It's mint, never worn, all original links with full documentation. That's a gleaming +€10K indulgence the original owner never even unpacked. I'm curious. What has a humble elderly postal delivery man in poor health spent on a fine wrist watch? €6'575. It took him years to save up. Seeing him all aglow gushing effusively, only a rabid miser would argue the reality of POI. It's very real. Why begrudge others their pleasures just because they might differ from our own? About today's challenger, the-ear.net bestowed an Editor's Choice award as did Hifi Pig. Then Greg Weaver called it a Reviewer's Choice for Part-Time Audiophile. All three rated POI particularly high. That's amazing 3-out-of-3 consensus considering the varying tastes, ancillaries and rooms of listeners particularly in a category where differences tend to be most pronounced. More plaudits came from Warsaw contributor Dawid Gryzb who'd attended Munich 2023. When asked about his favorite or most surprising discoveries, "Børresen's X3 with their Axxess Forté all-in-one was one awesome most memorable standout especially given price. Sven Boenicke's new flagship W22 with his own electronics was the other. These were my two highlights of the show."
Preferring white to black especially in fingerprint gloss, I asked for white and scored a journeyman pair. Mild cosmetic wear doesn't bother me in the least. I favor broken in to never played especially with speakers. Eagle-eyed watchers with spade-terminated cables already credited the X3 an extra point for doing away with the firm's banana-only sockets. Think classic 5-way posts instead. If you were hazy on "double copper caps on the pole rings", this next photo should have you crystal. And from the British Easy Composites website we learn that "spread-tow carbon fibre is a dry reinforcement much like conventional woven cloth but manufactured using special spreading tech to make the individual tows of fibre very flat and wide. The result is a smoother flatter fabric than conventional woven cloth with less crimp which occurs each time warp and weft tows intersect. This reduced crimp means that spread-tow fabrics can provide stiffness advantages." We've already seen this material in Gryphon, Perlisten and Rockport speakers as well as raw driver catalogues by Eminence, SB Acoustics, ScanSpeak and SEAS. That's excellent company; particularly when Børresen manufacture their drivers in-house to not buy off the rack.
As a palletized shipment, my samples used the DSV freight forwarder not air cargo. The factory had the good sense to use ratchet straps which for the return freight don't require a special tool to re-tighten then clamp. It's little details like these which separate the pros from the amateurs. Hours prior to my 7-day dispatch, Hifistatement's review conducted in a small room concluded with "there's currently no way around the X3. Value of sound and build quality is so high that you should consider it when looking for speakers at higher prices. This is a wonderful example for how to successfuly transfer costly high-end tech to a more affordable range without neglecting brand identity or established quality standards". At this rate my review would be gnawing on sun-bleached bones. Had all the juicy stuff been said already? In which case, slim pickings and just one more concluding sentence. "Like all of 'em said." The end?
