Børresen X3 loudspeaker
The new Børresen X3 loudspeaker marks a new entry level for this upmarket Danish brand. For the X3 loudspeaker, Michael Børresen and his team of designers and engineers were able to draw on the development process and technology of the newly created Børresen M1 driver membrane – Børresen’s most ambitious loudspeaker project to date. This membrane is designed to achieve maximum stiffness with minimum noise. The X3 membrane consists of three skins laminated into a single unit: two layers of spread carbon fibre, with a layer of aramid honeycomb spacers in between.
The combination of these materials gives this membrane its unique properties. The spread-tow carbon fiber was designed to provide a skin with optimal stiffness. This reduces vibrations and resonances to unprecedented levels. The aramid honeycomb also has the best stiffness-to-weight ratio in the vertical direction. A flat response membrane in terms of resonances paved the way to build a very transparent loudspeaker with a reduced size of the magnetic motor system to minimise costs.
X3 motor system
In the X3 motor system, Børresen uses double copper caps on the pole rings to achieve high flux and low inductance. The use of copper caps has been adopted from the Børresen Z-series. Copper produces a response to flux changes – the better the counter-effect of these copper rings, the flatter the inductance curve, and the lower the electro-magnetic resonance. In addition, lower inductance also means fewer spikes in the impedance curve. Both result in a lower load on the amplifier. To ensure high efficiency, the X3 has two pole rings. This causes the loss of some flux, which reduces efficiency, but this is compensated for by a larger magnet.
X3 tweeter
The tweeter chosen for the Børresen X3 has the same design used in all other Børresen loudspeaker series. However, there is a reduction in magnet and iron mass. This is possible due to the extremely high efficiency of the original tweeter design. As a result, the efficiency has dropped from a high 94 dB to an average 88 dB. The tweeter operates from about 2.5 kHz upwards. The moving mass is extremely low at 0.01 grams.
X3 crossover and cabinet
The Børresen X3 is equipped with a parallel crossover built with high-quality components from the Z Series. This makes for a mechanically stable crossover that minimizes its self-resonance. The surface of the cabinet is finished in black or white piano lacquer and reinforced with optical carbon fiber inserts. The cabinet is made of a heavily braced wood composite material that has the property of “eliminating sound distortion”. The material used for the cabinet also reduces mechanical influences, especially hysteresis. The Børresen X3 cabinet has six bass reflex ports. The tweeter is vented to compensate for the air pressure that builds up. The Børresen X3 retails at $11,000 /€10.000.