The designers behind Scansonic won’t accept that a high-performance speaker with great sound has to be heavy or ugly. They stick to the philosophy of its more expensive cousin Raidho, which has given us the slim X2t floorstanding speakers.
The new Scansonic Q series uses a so-called quasi-ribbon tweeter, which in reality is based on the same principle as the drivers in a pair of planar magnetic headphones. Where a sheet of mylar film is suspended between two opposing magnets. The tweeter is supposed to deliver “silky smooth highs while presenting all details with crystal clarity.”
The woofers are made from a single piece of moulded, woven carbon fibre. These are bespoke units developed by Raidho’s engineering team. And according to the manufacturer, that’s exactly what it takes to keep up with the lightning-fast ribbon tweeter.
Raidho X2t is small in size alone. The slim floorstanding speakers sound like nothing else, and now they are finally easier to position!
The crossovers are also based on Raidho principles to provide coherence, dynamics and “live-like sound”.
All speakers are built in Denmark by the same people who build Raidho speakers. All speaker units are their own design and invention, nothing is off-the-shelf. In other words, the Q series is “built with the same passion and precision as the Raidho speakers”, according to the Scansonic press release. Which, like Raidho, is 100 per cent owned by Dantax Radio.
The models:
Scansonic Q3
The Q3 is a slim floorstanding speaker, only 17 cm wide and 100 cm tall, with two 5.25-inch carbon drivers and a sealed ribbon tweeter. The 2.5-way principle means that one woofer plays both bass and midrange, while the other only helps out in the energy-intensive bass range.
We are promised that the speaker has a solid bass foundation and that it sounds much bigger than it looks. The bass response is rated down to 52 Hz, but should extend somewhat deeper in a normal room.
The ribbon tweeter is a Raidho design, only somewhat simplified. “It brings true high-end lustre to this slim and beautiful speaker,” says the manufacturer.
The cabinet is also promised to be extra high-quality.
The Scansonic Q3 costs €7,000 in black and €8,000 in walnut.
Scansonic Q8
The Q8 is the first Scansonic speaker with a large(ish) 8-inch woofer for deeper and more powerful bass. Down to 37 Hz in the bass, this is by all accounts a true full-range speaker.
This is a three-way speaker with both the midrange and bass cone made of carbon fibre. This is to ensure a dynamic and organic music reproduction. The distinctive ribbon tweeter at the top provides air and detail, and we’re promised an amazing cabinet quality. “It’s not something you see every day, and certainly not at this price point.”
Nothing that comes from that factory is cheap, so when Scansonic talks about being affordable, be aware that the Q8 still costs €9,000 per pair in black and €11,000 in walnut.
Scansonic Q10
If you don’t think one 8-inch is big, why not try two of them? That’s what’s inside the Q10, which is designed to fill larger rooms with higher sound pressure levels.
Like its siblings, we’re talking carbon fibre in the midrange and woofers, and the same ribbon tweeter on top.
The Scansonic Q10 costs 13,000 euros in black and 15,000 euros in walnut.
More info: scansonic.dk