SCANSONIC MB2.5 B - REVIEW
SCANSONIC MB2.5 B
You’ve seen the movies where the piece opens at the narrative’s conclusion with expository voiceover, while the remainder of the show is presented as an extended flashback…Well, I’m going that route with this review; punchline first, blather to follow…Scansonic HD’s MB2.5B is a heck of a loudspeaker. It’s slim and attractive while delivering sonic excellence in its price range. Now for the flashback…[fade to digital black]
The folks at Dantax are known for their svelte Raidho and chunky Gamut premium speakers, but the reasonably priced Scansonic HD lines address those who haven’t dipped into their trust funds just yet. Raidho and Scansonic share a close family visual aesthetic, as well as similar design choices; a slim front baffle mated to a relatively deep, teardrop cabinet; a slight tilt away from the listener to aid the crossover in time alignment, and a Kapton–laminated, true aluminum ribbon for the top end. The short ribbon, manufactured in–house, lives in a sealed enclosure and is coupled to a short throat racetrack horn to control dispersion. The MB Series is Scansonic’s high end family, with the M Series in the middle and the utilitarian L Series at the base. In a dark listening room, you could mistake the MB2.5B for its fancy cousin, Raidho Acoustics’s X2. “Reasonably priced” is a relative term, and the MB2.5B being a Danish product means the base model will run you $3490 per pair for semigloss “silk” black or gloss white, and $4500 for a rich, real walnut veneer. The MDF cabinets are sourced from elsewhere in the EU, but assembly is done in–house by hand entirely at their factory in Denmark.
You may have heard of Scan-Speak, the storied Danish transducer manufacturer. Scansonic was build “on the back” of Scan-Speak, as the Dantax Group owned the speaker company from 1977 to 1988. Scansonic’s MB series are basically less expensive mini Raidhos, incorporating trickle down Raidho technology. Engineering and development is done by the same folks as Raidho. When asked via e–mail what aspects do Scansonic HD products share with their Raidho relatives, Morten Kim Nielsen, Sales & Marketing Director for both Scansonic HD and Raidho, stressed the shared parentage of both brands. “The (Scansonic HD) products are developed with the same DNA as Raidho. By the same people. They are also built by the same people.” A closer look at the MB2.5B reveals the use of strong and light carbon fiber in both cabinet and transducers. The 5.25" mid and woofer both utilize a woven carbon fiber cone, sans dustcap, which lends them an unusual look. When asked about this feature shared with Raidho, Nielsen told me that the design choice reduces breakup. The cabinet’s top plate and front are also fabricated with carbon fiber inlays.
A relaxed, second order crossover is employed and, with a sensitivity of 88dB, a moderately beefy amplifier is needed. The manufacturer recommends “…high quality amplifiers” with greater than 50W of power. I drove them with my Parasound JC 5, which can deliver about 500 Watts into the speaker’s 6Ω impedance. In my room, the little gals landed pretty much where others had; 80" from the listening position, about 74" apart with the rear radius 34" from the rear wall. This is largely dictated by my listening position, itself imposed by my couch location. Unlike rear–ported designs, the MB2.5B has a relatively large, downward–facing cylindrical port, which allows placement closer to a back wall without LF buildup. Having been in a jazzy mood of late, I started my listening with 3 Hand Clapping’s recent ultra–fi release, Way Over Yonder on the Sound Liaison label [352.8 WAV]. Usually, I start up an album and begin typing. Upon the first notes popping out of the Scansonics, my head snapped up and my attention was fully focussed on the chronicled live event. My notes say, “Wow! Crazy good sonics with an intimate, believable soundstage.” At eight times the normal Compact Disc sample rate, this album really illuminates the advantages of careful recording and post–production at high sampling rates. The percussion sparkles and pops with a palpable “you are there” sense of inclusion in a cozy meeting of musical minds. The MB2.5B shines in this context, neither introducing irritating resonances nor failing to deliver the low frequencies necessary for true engagement.
By the way, Scansonic specs the MB2.5B’s frequency response as 36Hz to 40kHz ±3dB, so they go surprisingly low. When I first added them to my rig, I started playback and, after only a moment, jumped up to turn off my sub…the sub wasn’t even plugged in! Score one for the diminutive black monoliths. Over the course of this review, I tried a variety of low frequency–rich recordings, always with good results. A reference LF track for me is Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” [TIDAL 88.2 MQA], with producer Bob Rock’s pillowy tom tone and Jason Newsted’s propulsive bass. I have played it through a variety of consumer and professional rigs, and I know it well. The MB2.5Bs acquitted themselves admirably, given their size. Yes, my subwoofer would have lent the bottom octave slam the floorstanders lacked, but I was happy miming air guitar along with the boys and did not miss a thing.
Back to Way Over Yonder…The venue for the session, Studio 2 at The Netherlands’ “MCO” or Muziek Centrum van de Omroep in Hilversum provided the recording’s natural ambience, warmly conveyed through the little black towers. At face value, that 40k upper frequency response spec I tossed out earlier might suggest that the MS2.5B would exhibit a shrillness or overt “presence”. In fact, they are just the opposite, with a natural top end that never calls attention to itself.
Next, another live jazz recording that turns the previous one on its head, fidelity–wise…The Darrell Grant Quartet’s 2022 release, The New Black - Live At Birdland [Lair Hill Records, 44.1 ALAC] is an inspired performance, captured in a less than ideal manner and environment. The midrange – heavy, slightly tubby recording with too distant miking along with occasional distortion, paints a boomy, overly reverberant picture trapped in a minuscule soundstage. It’s all offered up in equal measure to the listener through the MB2.5B. No understated or overt beautification, no tasteful subtraction; it’s presented straight up, no chaser.
The credits for the Everly Brothers’ “Gone, Gone, Gone” [TIDAL 88.2 MQA 2007 Remaster] reads like a Who’s Who of Golden Age country recording, with Chet Atkins, Harold Bradley and Sammy Pruett on guitar and “Buddy” Harman manning the percussion. Floyd “Lightnin” Chance laid down the bottom while Bill Porter rode the controls. For a vintage recording, the soundstage is huge, the mix is bold, the whole a boisterous rockin’ celebration. The MB2.5Bs had me happily reliving the analog days of big hair, acoustic guitars and tight vocal harmonies.
Also in a retro vein, Tami Neilson’s track, “Baby, You’re A Gun” [TIDAL 44.1] off of her 2022 release Kingmaker, showcases her torchy approach to the Sergio Leone–inflected orchestration. Despite the reverb–drenched production, each element of the mix was presented with clarity and distinctiveness thanks to Scansonic’s expert design chops. The manufacturer recommends 100 hours of burn in, but I found the speakers sounded satisfying right out of the box and only improved a bit, with the imaging and top–to–bottom integration increasing over time.
Over several weeks, I drew from a wide range of genres and music styles, from Eminem’s entertaining and thought provoking new double album Curtain Call 2 [44.1 Qobuz], to Dorota Barová’s breezy and charming 2021 release Dotyk [44.1 Qobuz]. For more effete flâneurs, there were higher brow selections too; from Vladimir Jurowski and the Bavarian State Orchestra’s immersive (in the old sense) live 2022 recording of Brett Dean & Beethoven: Orchestral Works [48k Qobuz] to Olivia Belli’s creaky and evocative 2018 Erik Satie: 3 Gymnopédies [TIDAL 44.1]. Since I’ve been in the thrall of Netflix’s Watchman series of late, I even dipped into the 1952 “studio cast recording” of Oklahoma! In mono no less, which allowed me to get a handle on how the speakers in my room rendered both the phantom center specificity and the in–built distortion. In case you were wondering, the phantom center was narrow and as tall as the speakers…
The MB2.5B sits comfortably in what I consider the higher end of midprice. Most folks would balk at throwing down $3500 for a pair of speakers when they can have a grand ol’ time in Vegas instead. For audiophiles however, where adding an extra zero to that amount will buy you midline Raidho TDs, that is not crazy money. Upon unboxing a pair of black MB2.5, I was reminded of the NHT 3.3, a late ’90s floor stander designed by mentor and friend Ken Kantor. The 3.3 saw early use of narrow front baffles and deep cabinets, and left a lasting impression on me. The MB2.5B is a minitower, with faces a mere 7" wide, including a ½" radius on either side. As delivered, the MB2.5B pair arrived in an easily wrestled paperboard box without a grill, so I didn’t have to decide whether to remove or leave them on. The only assembly required were four screws per speaker to hold on the front and rear cast aluminum outriggers. The feet are blunt, elastomer–tipped cones, suitable for bare floors or carpet. The beefy binding posts made hookup easy. For this review, I pressed a pair of ANTICABLES Level 4.2 FLEX speaker cables into service.
Unobtrusive. Dare I say polite? Those may seem like faint praise but I mean that in the best possible sense. Nothing sticks out with the MB2.5B’s reproduction; no one–note bass or tooth rattling “presence” peaks. The drivers are nicely integrated and all are well behaved. More elusive aspects of music reproduction are not glossed over…I happened to launch the macOS–native version of TIDAL’s player app, and the difference between its slightly shrill and distorted playback and the less jittery, far more resolving Amarra Luxe were immediately obvious through the Scansonics. Same electronics, cabling and stream; I changed only the playback application. So much for those who claim “bits are bits”. Hah, I laugh at your concrete thinking!
All is not sweetness and light…I’ll mention a few aspects I didn’t enjoy but they were minor. The MB2.5B cabinets are internally braced with acoustic dampening material loose inside the speaker, but a Rap Test, knuckles not Hip Hop genre, indicates where those braces are and aren’t. I have to assume this contributes to the speaker not behaving entirely well when pushed really hard. Driving them to loud playback volumes, which for me is above 90dBSPL A weighted, results in a subtle shift in tonality, pushing the midrange forward. The bottom can, at times, tend toward slightly bloomy and slow. Again, these are minor faults, and not something one would likely notice at normal listening levels.
From the classical beauty of Simon Crawford-Phillips and the Vasteras Sinfonietta’s 2022 release Reflections on dB Productions to the over-the–top production of Rina Sawayama’s dancey shades of retro Gaga latest on Dirty Hit, the MB2.5B proved to me they were suited to all styles of musical entertainment. Apologies to Herodotus, but neither pop nor country nor hiphop nor darkness of metal prevents the MB2.5Bs from accomplishing, each one, the task appointed to it with the very utmost speed. Their minimal footprint, choice of finishes and reasonable height all make for a positive spousal approval factor. The verity that they make lovely music only adds to their appeal.
Looking for a high performing loudspeaker with a sophisticated air and a small envelope? The Danes have a way with transducers, and the folk at Scansonic HD may have just what you’ve been searching for. Scansonic HD’s MB2.5B is the little black dress of loudspeakers; it works well with every genre in intimate environs. An affordable price and dapper design sets the MB2.5B apart from most of the boxy competitors and, with its deep diving low end, truthful midrange and silky top, it’ll deliver the goods without draining your bank account. It may have a generic name but, but it’s anything but ordinary.
Specifications:
Size, mm. (BxHxD): 178 x 998 x 286
Weight, kg.: 15,6 per unit
Freq. response: 36 Hz – 40 KHz
Impedance: > 6 ohm
Sensitivity: 88 db
Crossover: 500 Hz + 2600 Hz / Minimum phase
Enclosure: Curved, heavily braced, ventilated box design with front loaded port and adjustable aluminum feet
Drive units: 1 x Ribbon tweeter · 1 x 5,25” Mid/Woofer · 1 x 5,25” Woofer
Black-silk, White-silk or Walnut
Amplification: We recommend high quality amplifiers >50W
US DISTRIBUTOR:
AV LUXURY GROUP
866-791-6915
info@avluxurygroup.com
www.avluxurygroup.com
Phone: (866) 528-8085
Phone: (818) 927-7553
AKRM