Scansonic MB-1 bookshelf speakers with raidho stands

Scansonic MB 1  – Stand Mount Two Way Mini Monitors

Made in Denmark speakers. Has be vinyl wrapped due to prior cosmetic issues. Functionally working great. Comes with original box

Also comes with stylish raidho stands
Product details from the web.
Highlights & Selling Points
• Exceptional Danish engineering in a compact form: beautifully curved, heavily braced cabinet with a carbon reinforced top panel for ultra-low resonance.
• Ribbon tweeter (Kapton/aluminum sandwich membrane) paired with a 4.5″ carbon fiber coned mid/woofer—delivering clarity, speed, and striking dynamics.
• Bass quality that defies size: front-ported design lets them sit close to walls while producing surprisingly bold bass for their footprint.

The MB-1 is smaller than its Raidho cousins, standing a mere 31cm tall, 17.5cm wide and 26.5cm deep -- or around a foot tall, 7" wide and 10" deep. Yet, each speaker weighs in at an impressive 6.1kg (13 pounds). Built on a machined and painted MDF base plate with a faux carbon-fiber top panel, the cabinet is all curved edges and walls and surprisingly solid to the touch. The classic knuckle-rap test produces a well-controlled "thunk" -- neither too lively nor too dead. The carefully profiled aluminum front baffle is held in place by six large-diameter security fixings, which, along with the absence of driver-mounting bolts, adds to the clean, high-tech appearance.

The drivers are arguably what set this speaker apart. The shallow racetrack chamfer that surrounds the flat tweeter diaphragm of the in-house planar-magnetic drive unit immediately identifies the MB-1’s Raidho roots. Although the company persists in referring to it as a "ribbon," a misnomer repeated apparently ad infinitum by journalists who should know better, the Kapton substrate and the fact that it uses an etched or overlaid conductive voice coil (rather than the conductive element consisting of the entire diaphragm) rob the driver of the elusive status that goes with true ribbon construction. It also robs it of the cripplingly low impedance and requirement for a driving transformer that makes most real ribbons expensive to produce and hard to use -- which rather explains why Raidho adopted the distinctly real-world approach that they did. Not that what you label the device really matters. It either works or it doesn’t -- and in this case it definitely does.

The Scansonic speakers pair the flat tweeter with 11cm/4.5" drivers with lightweight, continuous carbon-fiber cones, devoid of the traditional dust cap. In another Raidho tradition, these are driven by muscular motors using the kind of overhung voice coils more often associated with expensive monitors like those from ATC. It’s an approach that is traditionally associated with maximizing dynamic range and low-frequency control -- concerns that might seem at odds with such a miniscule driver and speaker system but speak volumes about the intent behind the design decisions, the emphasis on speed, transparency and dynamic response. In part that’s about successfully blending the output of the tweeter with the cone driver that supplies the midrange, but it’s also about producing the lively, engaging and rhythmically involving sound that has won Raidho speakers so many friends.

Of course, one of the great advantages enjoyed by a speaker as small as the MB-1 is the ease of engineering a simple two-way crossover and the fact that there’s no deep bass to get in the way and trip things up. Short of getting things really wrong, you are almost guaranteed a quick, coherent sound. Instead the challenge becomes generating enough bass to satisfy without messing up that articulate, inviting midband. To that end the MB-1 employs a large, carefully flared, forward-firing slot port, a canny decision as the combination of carefully controlled flow and defined directionality means that you can push the little speakers back surprisingly close to the wall without the bottom end getting lumpy or detached. The result is bass (more accurately, midbass) that is weighty enough to surprise a listener, quick enough to add impetus to music and tight enough not to slow things down -- a nicely judged sonic sleight of hand that underpins everything the MB-1 does.