Specs & Pricing

Eben X-3
Loudspeaker
Design Elements
Denmark produces some of the world’s best speaker drivers, and the units in the Eben are quite
special. Designer Michael Boerresen has created a unique, sealed, planar-magnetic tweeter
whose voice coil is etched onto a diaphragm that is less than 1/10th of a millimeter thick and
weighs only 1/10th of a gram. I do not know of a planar-magnetic, ribbon, or electrostatic
tweeter with better power-handling or more extended high-frequency response than this
one. Three large, powerful, neodymium cobalt magnets are distributed across the back of the
membrane, which is constrained right around its periphery. Voltage is applied across the
entire membrane, top and bottom. A word of warning—avoid anything metal near this
tweeter, like a screwdriver or stethoscope, or the powerful magnets will suck it into the
tweeter.
As appealing as the design of the Raidho/Eben planar appears, exotic tweeters are
notoriously difficult to integrate with conventional midrange drivers without negatively
impacting coherence, timbre, and transient speed. The reality is that most cones have
trouble keeping up with the speed of low-mass/high-speed ribbon, planar-magnetic,
or electrostatic tweeters and they have different launch patterns. Both the design of
the planar tweeter on the X-3 and its placement on the front baffle, recessed slightly
back for time alignment and flanked by a sloping foam-like surround, help make
it far easier to integrate with the Eben’s cone drivers, which also happen to be
lightning-fast. Raidho teamed with Per Skanning of Audio Technology to develop a
custom set of relatively small (6.1"") dynamic drivers which use expensive, massive
Audio Technology motors assemblies and Raidho cones. Each column uses five of
these and although these dynamic drivers are the same size, they incorporate
slight differences to optimize their performance. For instance, the midrange
unit has a Kapton voice-coil former to improve its speed and resolution. It may
be the quickest cone midrange unit I’ve heard and it, too, has excellent powerhandling
and frequency response out to 12kHz, although it gently crosses over
to the planar tweeter at 2kHz. This integration between the Raidho planar
tweeter and cone midrange driver is very good and rivals the coherency and
speed of the original Genesis V loudspeaker I used as a reference for several
years, while exceeding the Gen V’s high-frequency extension, if not its air.
(That speaker mated two circular ribbon tweeters with a midrange dome
driver that was anything but conventional. Both of these superlative
performers come surprisingly close to the single-driver coherency of a
large SoundLab electrostatic in treble/midrange area, and the Eben is just
as coherent as the big ’stat in the midrange/bass.)
The four woofers in each speaker are the same size as the midrange
unit but are only asked to handle the frequencies below 200Hz down to
30Hz (at a rated -3dB), aided by the downward-firing port. These relatively
small drivers don’t move the air that the four 12" woofers on one of my
Infinity Beta woofer columns used to move, and they don’t have the
Beta’s awesome bass weight and extension, but the Eben’s are much,
much quicker, more articulate, and more coherent with the midrange.
The X-3 not only captures the bottom octave of a piano, but also has
the snap and aliveness of the real thing. Just listen to the sound of
stand-up bass on the Eben, and you’ll see what I mean. As with the
tweeter and midrange, the bass drivers are allowed to naturally
roll off, with each crossover consisting of a single high-quality
part “using first-order techniques to produce a second-order
design.” This approach keeps the crossovers from sucking the
life out of the music as many complex crossover networks
can. At 90dB sensitivity the X-3 is easy to drive and is
internally wired with Nordost monofilament cable.
The speaker is decoupled from the floor using
two sets of Cold Rays (cups with ball bearings)
separated by a plinth. JH
The X-3’s
performance is of
reference quality in
many respects
86 December 2006 The Absolute Sound