This review first appeared in November 2023 on fairaudio.de. By request of the manufacturer and permission of the author, it is hereby syndicated from the German original to reach a broader English audience. Ed.
Writer: Michael Bruss
Analog sources: J.Sikora Initial Max w. aluminium plinth and regulated PSU; Pro-Ject Carbon Debut EVO w. Kuzma Stogi Reference S12 arm and Transrotor Figaro, Ortofon 2M Bronze or Ortofon 2M Red cartridges; Grundig FineArts T2 tuner
Digital sources: ifi iDSD nano, Norma Audio REVO DAC;: Technics SL-G700; Métronome DSS 2, Cambridge CNX v2; Nucleus by Roon, MacBook Pro
Integrated amplifier: Audio Hungary Qualiton X200 KT150, Linn Classik Movie II
Preamplifier: Norma Audio REVO SC-2, LinnenberG Bizet MC, Norma Audio PH3 module
Power amplifier: Norma Audio REVO PA-150
Loudspeakers: ATC SCM50PSL, Divine Acoustics Bellatrix, JBL 4309, Argon Audio Forte A5
Rack: customized Roterring Belmaro 33
Listening room: 24.5m², 2.7m ceiling
Review component retail price: €7'000/pr
To great hoopla, Scansonic launched their new top series Q at this year's Munich show. It conjures up James Bond or Star Trek depending on your pop culture influence. The interest didn't surprise. Anyone with eyes in their head could see the appeal. Even the smallest Q3 has been cleverly styled to sport extremely attractive curves and proportions. As usual with Scansonic, these models borrow heavily from sister brand Raidho. The tech transfer didn't stop with the famous tweeter as product manager Morten Kim Nielsen stressed to me: "There's never been as much Raidho DNA in a Scansonic as there is in the Q models." There are currently three, all of them floorstanders. The middle Q8 is a 3-way with the planar tweeter, a 13.4cm carbon midrange and a 20cm carbon woofer at €9K in black, €11K in walnut. The top Q10 doubles up its woofer and at €13/15K becomes significantly more costly. I wouldn't be surprised if Scansonic added a stand-mount. After all, a monitor or two figure in all their other ranges. But until this comes true, the Q3 marks the entry into the Danes' new series of besties. It also put me back temporarily into the good graces of my better half due to its design language and dimensions versus the more (cough) traditional i.e. far more crudely designed ATC SCM50PSL. So excuse me for being repetitive when I say that this speaker really is a visual feast that comes off as decorative sculpture even without making any sound. Whether you pick high-gloss black or matt walnut veneer which costs two thousands more is sheer matter of taste. If I could choose, I'd probably go after the veneer which at least in the official photos looks lovely, velvety and warm.
The Q3 is a 2½-way whose crossover has a "flat slope conducive to cohesion". Below 2.6kHz the tweeter hands over to two cones with aerodynamically optimized baskets and woven carbon-fibre membranes for low mass, stiffness and inherent self damping. One runs as a classic mid/woofer, the other goes down from 285Hz to only reinforce the upper mate in the lower midrange and bass. It goes without saying that these diameters and svelte dimensions promise no miracles in the basement. Or do they? Let's first tackle the so-called ribbon. Scansonic say that their ribbon tweeter with its 20μm thin 0.03g light membrane sealed at the edges is "made in a sandwich construction of Kapton and aluminium." Meanwhile Raidho's website corrects this with "to be precise, with its conductive traces on the membrane this is a planarmagnetic tweeter." With a true ribbon the entire membrane is conductive to need no bonded voice coil. Also, the magnets don't run across the diaphragm but sit at its top and bottom. To transform a virtual short into higher impedance, a true ribbon needs a transformer which to the naysayers diminishes some of its advantages. In conversational English, confusion arises when both magnetostats and true ribbons are referred to as – uh, ribbons.
The unusual curvy Q cabinet reminds me of a sail. There are no parallel surface to reduce the severity of internal standing waves and the multiple tapers and concave back even add a slight bulge to the spine's mid section. It's most atypical, très chic and sonically advantageous. Three protruding aluminium ports suggest a vertical ocean liner's chimneys; or the exhaust gallery of a Ferrari 458 Italia; whatever floats your boat or rubs your rubber. This elongated port-tube arrangement was enforced by the compact dimensions. But Scansonic expressly point out that it also gives us a lot of bass-tuning freedom, which, to look ahead, will make sense in certain scenarios. The enclosure material is MDF to enable the slim shape and because "it stores less energy to cause less sonic colouration and to sound more lively". Wall thickness is quite thin as a result but Scansonic use tensioned internal braces to keep resonances in check.
Two aluminium outriggers ensure a firm stance with smoothly height-adjustable footers, floor-friendly felt pads and non-slip locking discs. The Q3 thus stands most secure despite its slimline form factor. As they do for all their models, Scansonic again use single-wire terminals which I generally prefer. With declared sympathy and admitted affinity for gorgeous looks—so I'm shallow—let's move to sonics. Okay, so the Scansonic Q3 really are stunning not just cosmetically. They also were on very first listen over my combo of €8'465 Norma Audio SC-2/DAC and matching €7'190 PA150 whilst replacing my usual €15'500 ATC SCM50PSL. The narrow Danish sails immediately insisted that they're far more capable than such bijou stature might promise. On Steven Wilson's amazing album The Harmony Codex they acted far more grown up and large than expected. In truth, I've never hosted a speaker with better bass-to-enclosure-volume ratio in my room. It was crazy how powerful the bass in songs like "Economies of Scale" was. This was even more physical and powerful than the firm's €5K/pr MB3.5 had been which weren't exactly squeamish in terms of raw bass output.
