Words and Photos by Greg Weaver
My first exposure to the world premiere of the $280,000/pair Børresen M3 loudspeakers at AXPONA in April, driven by the $70,000 each flagship Aavik C-880 linestage and P-880 amplifier, left me more than merely impressed. There was a sense of quickness, a deftness of delivery, and a sense of both power and scale that was remarkably impressive. I simply had to get them into my hands, and reference system, for a more exhaustive look – and listen. Imagine my happy surprise when, after suggesting the possibility to Audio Group Denmark’s North American Sales Manager, friend and colleague Peter Hansen, I learned that my wish would be granted!
Børresen M3 Loudspeakers: Behind the Curtain
No discussion of any AGD product would be complete without at least a cursory dive into the myriad of vastly different and markedly effective technologies that Michael Børresen and the entire product development team at AGD have pioneered and implemented, to some varying degree, into every product that they currently manufacture.
For those wishing to take a deeper, more cogent investigation into the remarkable scope of technological advances and pioneered engineering approaches they have established, I would encourage you to take a look at PTA Editor-In-Chief Marc Phillips’ factory tour HERE, my three-part factory tour videos, as well as the Tech Talk episode I recorded with both Michael Børresen and Flemming Rasmussen at my YouTube Channel. There is also considerable detail available from the Audio Group Denmark web pages. But for now, let’s take the “Cliff’s Notes” abridged excursion through some fourteen of those implemented technologies in the Børresen M3 loudspeakers!
– The M Cabinet combines advanced form and function, improving the speaker’s overall sonic presentation as well as contributing to its distinctive aesthetic.
– The Internal M Cabinet provides more effective loading for the bass/midrange drivers, helping to ensure a more dynamic, much faster, and more agile response.
– The M Series Driver Membrane is described as the most advanced and sophisticated speaker membrane available today, and is fabricated of complex bonded layers of disparate, extremely rigid materials, and finished with advanced, multi-faceted vapor deposition treatments.
– The Driver Basket is the result of exhaustive studies and computer-optimized finite element analysis that yielded a topology-optimized, 3D-printed basket fabricated from zirconium!
– The Motor & Magnet System uses their patented iron-free magnetic motor assembly with even further refinement, including handcrafted in-house cast silver rings, and full cryogenic treatment.
– The Børresen Tweeter features an optimized magnetic flux field, and its planar diaphragm has an exceptionally low moving mass of just 0.01 grams!
– The M3 Driver Configuration employs four unique four-and-one-half inch M-series drivers, with one pair acting as bass/midrange drivers, and another pair performing only as pure bass drivers.
– The M Series Crossover uses serial crossover filters and incorporates foil-type coils, military spec stack-foil type capacitors, and high-precision metal strip resistors.
– Internal Wiring uses their flagship cables, the Ansuz Gold Signature series, which feature their most innovative and advanced audio cable technologies.
– The Passive Tesla Coil is a unique electronic component that employs pairs of passive coils, wound in opposite directions, both carrying voltage, used in a noise suppression role.
– The Active, and Active Square, Tesla Coils are more diverse, some embedded on circuit boards, others mounted around the mains conductors, with the square Tesla coils embedded into the circuit boards themselves, all applied to minimize and eliminate noise.
– Analog Dithering, now in its third generation at AGD, uncovers information that would otherwise remain concealed beneath the noise floor, resulting in a clearer picture of the full content of recordings.
– Anti Aerial Resonance Coil Technology. Because all cables, even their shielding, are essentially antennas, this approach allows for airborne radio frequency (RF) noise and other electromagnetic interference (EMI) to be absorbed and filtered from the signal.
– Cryogenic Treatment, using their on-site cryo-tanks allows them to apply a three-day cryogenic treatment cycle to every metal component used in the loudspeaker’s assembly.
Substance
Phew! If that seems like a shite load of advanced technology, attention to detail, time, energy, and expense devoted to building a pair of loudspeakers, that is only because it IS! Why do I think it so important to make you aware of the extent and significance of the applied and materials sciences and the vastly diverse and complex technologies that are all brought to bear to realize this magnificent creation of a loudspeaker?
The answer is quite simple. That understanding is imperative to comprehending just how bloody costly this speaker is to make. Sadly, so many readers will prejudge and simply dismiss this engaging, world-class loudspeaker out of hand as merely another luxury item, a product bearing an overinflated asking price set merely to line the pockets of those who benefit from its sale.
While we can debate whether or not such pricing models exist at some companies at another time, in the case of the Børresen M3 loudspeakers, it comes down to a matter of the realities of running an audio business, or any business for that matter. The pricing structure of any company’s products and services must not only reflect the cost of the product itself, it must also be able to support the company’s sustainability. This means that besides covering the obvious costs of things like their raw materials and construction processes, often requiring painstaking and time-consuming diligence to fabricate, quite often by hand, IT HAS TO PROVIDE for all the other overhead that keeping the doors open entail.
These include a more mundane, less glamorous list of expenses such as payroll, taxes and fees, rent or mortgage costs, utilities, specialized machinery and equipment purchase, upkeep, maintenance, and replacement cycle fees, as well as things like insurance (business liability/business interruption/cyber/worker’s compensation/unemployment/business auto/property & assets), advertising, promotion, marketing, packaging, warehousing, shipping, warranty repair, dealer network support, and research and development, to name some of the more obvious.
Do you see what I’m getting at? Are you able to grasp the enormity of the expense involved in presenting a product as remarkably advanced as the Børresen M3 loudspeakers to the market? Whether the superlative accomplishment that is the Børresen M3 is a product you could afford or would choose to purchase, you should now have a much clearer understanding of just what factors into its now more understandably justified lofty asking price. Enough with the somatic presentation; on to the FUN!
Børresen M3 Loudspeakers: Situation
A pair of beautifully finished white Børresen M3 loudspeakers was delivered (from Next Level HiFi of Wayne, IL – THANK YOU Tyler and Josh!) for my evaluation. As I soon learned, these were only the second pair of M3s in North America as of their arrival. Standing just over five feet tall, nearly seventeen inches wide, and some twenty-eight and a half inches deep, but weighing a surprisingly scant one-hundred fifty pounds, they were the lightest loudspeakers I have ever evaluated in my current listening space, greatly facilitating their necessary descent into my basement music room.
In preparation for this review, I had shorted my current reference speakers, the Von Schweikert Audio ULTRA 9s, input terminals, turned them both to their sides, pushed them back almost against the front wall, and covered them completely with blankets to moderate any unwanted stray reflectivity. However, when it came time to connect my speaker cables, to my surprise and disappointment, I discovered that the Børresen M3 loudspeakers accept only banana terminations. As my reference Stealth Audio Dream V14 tunable loudspeaker cables ($18,000/ two-meter set) terminate with large spades, their incompatibility ruled out the possibility of a direct head-to-head comparison.
A box of Ansuz cables and other supporting accessories had accompanied the M3’s arrival, more on that soon enough, so I was quickly able to connect them to the True Life Audio SSA-350 monoblocks using an included two-meter set of the mid-tier Ansuz Speaks A2 speaker cables, which retail for $4,600.
Once they were connected to my amps, final steps included connecting their integral external power source and associated cabling to supply the required 14-volt DC power to the active technology included in the M3’s complex dividing network, as well as installing the set of Z2 Darkz zirconium resonance control footers, one under each of both speaker’s four plinth footers.
Following the coarse dial-in maneuvers, and having arrived at a seemingly favorable location and orientation, I settled in for what would be the next few days’ exercise of committing finer resolution adjustments. Over the next thirty-six to forty-eight hours of listening, employing minute tweaking, including a little more attention paid to the symmetry of placement and toe-in, invaluably aided by a Bosch laser measuring tool, I was satisfied that I had landed these lovely beasties in such a manner as to afford them their best possible voice. And there can be no denying the results; there was some major magic happening!
Establishing a New Standard
The first thing to become clear was the Børresen M3 loudspeakers’ startling degree of resolution. Resolution does not mean bright or super-detailed; it is not “code” for excessive upper-midrange or treble energy. True resolution reveals detail and nuance, more clearly illumining microdynamic subtitles like extremely fine transient detail or the nuances of instrumental tone color and its associated texture. It communicates an enhanced ability to follow a single instrumental line embedded deeply within dense, intricate arrangements, or by depicting a starker sense of the space between and around images within the soundstage.
True resolution in a loudspeaker may only be realized through heightened driver clarity. Such clarity may only be achieved by augmented design developments and/or the use of unique materials that lead to the lowering of its distortions, both electrically and/or mechanically. When you take into consideration the extent of the ambitious steps Børresen and AGD take in the fabrication of the bespoken drivers used in the M3, you may begin to understand how this has been achieved.
The diaphragms of these four-and-one-half-inch drivers are described as being the most advanced and sophisticated speaker membranes available today. Formed from complex bonded layers of disparate, extremely rigid materials, using two layers of spread tow carbon fiber laminated between a layer of aramid honeycomb, the outer surface is finished with a four-one-hundredths of a millimeter thick titanium skin layer. Then the membrane is coated with extremely fine layers of titanium, zirconium, tungsten, and aluminum chrome nitride using vapor deposition at the Danish Technological Institute in Aarhus for unsurpassed rigidity and non-resonance. Add to this the topology-optimized, 3D-printed basket fabricated from zirconium, the patented iron-free magnetic motor assembly with cast handcrafted silver rings, followed by the full cryogenic treatment, and the picture starts to come into sharper focus, literally.
The improvements realized by employing such extreme measures result in the unmasking of previously obscured information, not by the artificial enhancement or emphasis of any particular bandwidth or frequency range, but by reducing either or both its mechanical and electrical distortions to vanishingly low levels. In short, the measures taken to fabricate the drivers used in the Børresen M3 loudspeakers (and in fact, the whole M series), result in a newfound ability to reveal previously obscured information and detail.
For example, when listening to the Joseph Silverstein reading of “Melodia,” the third movement of Bartók’s supremely challenging Sonata for Solo Violin (Columbia – MS 6345), the M3 digs beneath the harmonics, more clearly illuminating the fleetest of movements of his fingertips lightly caressing the violin’s strings, more lucidly revealing the distinctly silken rush of the bow. Further, I have never heard the distinct height differences among the four soloists during the finale to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, the Presto, or “Ode to Joy,” so clearly demarcated from the 1972 performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Sir Georg Solti (Decca 6BB.121, London Records CSP 8, or MFSL 2-516). As well, the double bass plucks from the opening of the “Andante-Allegro Moderato” from Tchaikovsky’s Serenade In C Major For Strings, Op. 48, from the 1993 King Records The Super Analogue Disc reissue (KIJC-9120), were imparted with more lifelike dynamics and harmonic texture than I’ve ever experienced prior.
Most of you who know me or have followed my work know that my sustenance musical diet consists of larger-scale classical works, as well as classic and progressive rock. So less formally, I enjoyed so many “discoveries” with these Danish divas in play, finding them almost erupting with a never-before-heard ability to present music with an unprecedented degree of individuality and specificity, with no sacrifice made to tonality, texture, or body.
Listening to “Bargain” from The Who’s 1971 milestone release Who’s Next (Classic Records – DL 79182) revealed previously concealed nuance, detail, and individuality to the tambourine zills buried deep within the right channel. Staying with The Who, I was completely unprepared to experience the newfound level of specificity to the individual keyboard phrasing commencing about five minutes into “Dr. Jimmy,” and of both Pete’s keyboards and Keith’s drumming during the opening to “The Rock,” both from 1973’s Quadrophenia (UK Track Records – 2657 013).
The remarkable level of resolution the Børresen M3 loudspeakers deliver is essential to the accomplishments of another heightened property it exhibits, that of its astonishing transparency. In the end, as resolution serves transparency, it has proven itself to be the most resolute and transparent loudspeaker I have yet had the pleasure of hearing. In my experience, the Børresen M3 loudspeakers represents a new benchmark in musical resolution and transparency to the sources and electronics driving them.
I should point out that this is an attribute to which I have witnessed a remarkable number of astonishingly significant advances over just the past year. First, with the accomplishments realized by Alon Wolf with his majestic statement loudspeaker, the Magico M9, which I shared HERE last July, an experience that left me almost speechless on first listen. That was soon closely matched, if not surpassed, by the startling increase in resolution realized when my Von Schweikert Audio ULTRA 9s underwent the installation of the Von Schweikert Audio Center Stage LS2 loudspeaker footers, designed by Critical Mass Systems. But without question, the Børresen M3 loudspeakers have now recalibrated the resolution yardstick by which all other loudspeakers must be measured and compared!
Recital
Let’s switch gears now and move on from their exceptional articulation and enunciation to their astonishing flavor and voicing. When it comes to the M3’s ability to render accurate tonality, to represent timber faithfully, in all my time with these beauties, I could find no specific fault or shortcoming across its entire bandwidth to point to. The only variances I was ever able to note came at the known transgressions of the recordings in play.
Their ability to portray pure, undiluted midrange timbre while imbuing those tones with an enchanting degree of both texture and body, assuming that it was properly captured by the recording, is exceptional. Listening to the recent 2022 Analogue Productions UHQR release of Kind of Blue (UHQR 0004-45) offers a penetrating expression of Miles’ mastery of tone. Playback on the Børresen M3 loudspeakers treats you to a clear understanding of his smoldering, smoky, subdued style, revealing one of the most iconic trumpet tones in jazz, dark and smooth, and with almost no vibrato.
The high-frequency detail and speed articulated with this bespoke, remarkably efficient planar tweeter of absurdly low mass was – in a word – exceptional. I can happily corroborate Børresen’s claim of this little dynamo’s robustness; during my time with the M3s, whether asked to recreate full-scale symphonic bombast, or to portray progressive metal assaults with the dynamic scaling befitting arena SPLs, this tweeter never lost its silken smoothness or revealed any congestion, compression, or breakup. While the M3’s planar tweeter never exhibited any missteps in this regard, it does slightly miss offering the very last measure of extension, shimmer, and effortlessness accomplished by the best available today.
In the lowest registers, some of my favorite torture tests and musical passages, like the voice of the Genie after his release from the lamp in “Three Wishes” from Roger Waters’ Amused to Death (Analogue Productions – APP 468761-45-JK01), the subterranean organ notes from the “Poco Adagio” during Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 (Mercury SR-90012), or the concussive punch when the bass guitar licks kick in about 17 seconds into “Seeya,” from Deadmau5 while(1<2) (Astralwerks – B002088402), are recreated in the fastest, most articulately pitch defined, and impactful manner you may come across today.
Objectively, the practical limits of the use of four-and-a-half-inch drivers, even bespoken ones of such heroic design, must be acknowledged. Here, in my space, even with the advantages of room loading, low-frequency extension was limited to the high 20 Hz, low 30 Hz range. While the Børresen M3 loudspeakers don’t quite reach the deepest frequency extension available, I suspect that, as most listeners have rarely if ever experienced such full-range performance, very, very few will even note this limitation, let alone give it any consideration.
Complementary
Shortly after settling on their optimum orientation, it was time to dig into that box of Ansuz cables and other supporting accessories that had accompanied the arrival of the Børresen M3 loudspeakers. The next step saw the replacement of the AC distribution point used to power a network switch and the integral external power source and associated cabling driving the active technology in the M3’s complex dividing network, with one of the entry-level Mainz 8 XTC-3 ($1,800).
Next came the replacement of the M3’s integrated 14-volt supply system with the Ansuz Gold Signature Power Box, a $23,000 power supply, powered with two Mainz X2 1 meter AC cables, at $960 each, and a pair of Gold Signature TC Linkz four-meter upgraded BNC cables at $1924 each. While some would argue that these upgrades were “subtle,” I would suggest that the stark lowering of the noise floor they afforded, in conjunction with the slight but clear improvements brought in microdynamic expression, in overall intelligibility, transparency, and clarity, make it a choice that should not be ignored. As such, these enhancements remained in place for the substance of this review.
Børresen M3 Loudspeakers: Forging the Future?
Is the M3 a perfect loudspeaker? Of course not, no speaker, or any audio product for that matter, is. Yet at its price, while clearly not within the means of most, these elegant and beautiful transducers boldly represent the realization of the striking potential possible when known boundaries are pushed.
What Børresen Acoustics and Audio Group Denmark have accomplished with the implementation of the wide-ranging scope of inventive and original technologies that they have created and champion results in the achievement of a new milestone. To dismiss the Børresen M3 loudspeakers because you are unable, or unwilling, to afford them would be to ignore their singular gift to music lovers, and those who do “get it,” will enjoy a specific level of playback that is, in my experience, simply unavailable from any other loudspeaker available as of this writing.
Oh wait, have you heard the M6?
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