Напольная акустика — Pbn Audio SCANSPEAK B1371

The ScanSpeak B1371 is a three-way tower speaker sold by PBN Audio, whose founder Peter Noerbaek is a Danish-born furniture designer and engineer and who designs and builds the speakers himself. It was offered in two forms - as a build-it-yourself kit of drivers and crossovers for USD 3,350, or as a pre-assembled pair for USD 9,500. The name refers to the Danish driver maker ScanSpeak, which supplies all three units in each cabinet.

Key specs that matter

Low frequencies are assigned to a Revelator 32W/4878T01, a 13 inch woofer built around a 3 inch voice coil and a massive magnet assembly with a low resonant frequency. Above it sits a Revelator 18M/4631T00, a 7 inch midrange with a sliced paper composite cone, chosen as an efficient driver with a broad pass-band. Treble is handled by the D2908/714000, an 8 ohm 1 inch tweeter with a beryllium dome and a relatively low resonance. Bass extends to about 30 Hz, with the port tuned to 20 Hz, below which output falls away quickly.

Engineering and use context

The woofer is loaded in a large rectangular enclosure with a slotted port at the bottom, which places the vent opening close to the floor and keeps it off the baffle. Panels are 25 mm thick MDF with extensive internal bracing. On the assembled pair, zebrawood veneer covers the top, the two sides and the base, and both the front and the back panel carry a satin black paint. The upgraded crossover uses Zen Acoustics capacitors and low-impedance air core inductors, and because of the size of those parts the network is mounted outside the cabinet instead of inside it. Kit buyers receive the drivers, the crossovers and the building instructions and make the enclosure themselves, which explains the gap of more than USD 6,000 between the kit and the finished pair. Given the large woofer and the bulk of the enclosure, the design is better suited to a room of at least 20 m2 than to a small study.

Pairing

An amplifier with at least 300 W per channel is advised. The impedance dips to about 3 ohm at more than one frequency, so a solid state power amplifier able to hold up into such low loads is a more secure choice than a valve amplifier of modest output.

Alternatives

The PBN Audio M2!5 is another floorstander from the same maker, using twin 15 inch woofers with a compression horn for the mid and high range.