Furthermore, this charming appearance is also due to a beautiful backside which sets distinctive accents with a recess for the single-wiring terminal and the three small ventilation openings above it. The asymmetrical backward tapering cabinet shape rounds off an organic design, yet basically the curved sides serve to avoid standing waves inside the body. On its front panel and the lid we have decorative inlays made of carbon fibres which give added stability to the MDF housing. A propos: lovers of classic wood veneers will be glad to see that, in addition to the mat lacquer finishes in black and white with silver feet, there is now also a model version in mat real wood walnut veneer available with black feet for an extra charge of 1,900 euros per pair.

Appropriate means

To a certain degree, the technical concept of the new MB B series is based on its predecessors, but for the reissue ScansonicHD has gone much further than just doing refinements on details. After twelve years of experience in the development and production of Raidho loudspeakers, the design team has incorporated some features of Raidho’s TD series into the transducers of the MB B-series from ScansonicHD and revised its concept from scratch. According to Production Manager Freddy Andersen the MB 5 and the MB5 B have nothing in common except for their look. The declared objective in the development of the MB B-series was to improve above all the spatial imaging and the bass precision, compared to the previous models. Apart from the crossover layout, the numerous means for this purpose can be summarised in two keywords: resonance control and air flow guidance.

For this reason the elaborated cabinet design contains a separate closed chamber for the tweeter and the midrange driver that sits below the HF driver. Within this joint section there’s a small compartment to acoustically isolate the tweeter from the midrange driver. The three woofers are run in parallel and housed in acoustic chambers which are not completely sealed on the rear so they can divert the backward radiated sound into the bass reflex volume. The latter extends through the rear part of the body almost over its full height and vents the already mentioned round reflex ports which are, of course, flow-optimised. While the ventilation of the woofers also heps to counteract compression effects, the chambers of midrange and bass drivers are damped with fibreglass wool. The same material was also attached around the woofer chambers to eliminate reflexions on both the speaker chassis and the sidewalls. For the same reason the engineers applied mineral wool at precisely defined spots on the back wall and in the rear zone of the sidewalls. What importance they ascribe to the resonance optimisation of the cabinet, which is already very solid because of its chambers, is also shown by the fact that the construction is additionally reinforced by a longitudinal and a transverse bracing.