Loudspeakers

All things are relative, I guess, but in the realm of high-end audio, the Børresen X3 looks like a lot of loudspeaker for the money. Moreover, a recent price cut – just about unheard of in the modern hi-fi market – has brought the speaker down from £10,000 to £8000 a pair. Described as an ‘entry-level into the Børresen universe’, the X3 draws on technology created for the Danish company’s higher-end models [HFN Sep ’25], from the drivers to the enclosures.

When DALI launched its flagship KORE speaker [HFN Dec ’22], followed by the Epikore 11 [HFN Feb ’25], the Danish company clearly wanted to turn heads in a higher-end segment. Which worked out fine, but both speakers have a ‘downside’: they are colossal. Applying trickle-down technologies from the £85k KORE and £40k Epikore 11, the smaller £20k Epikore 7 floorstander might just be the more sensible choice for typical living rooms.

Getting big bass from a loudspeaker, many think, requires huge drivers able to shift a lot of air. However, big drivers mean big cabinets to house them, and both skill in their tuning as well as capacity on the part of the amplifier. The former, at least, is something Danish company Raidho has clearly got under control with its X2t, although these £12,500-per-pair floorstanders opt for 135mm bass drivers – one covering bass/mid up to 3.5kHz, the other purely bass to 140Hz – for a slender form factor. The cabinet is just 143mm wide, and the whole speaker only 300mm wide including its aluminium outrigger feet, of which more later.

Over the past few years, DALI has established a firm presence in the premium loudspeaker market with impressive feats of engineering realised in its KORE flagship [HFN Dec ’23] and Epikore [HFN Feb ’25] ranges. However, the company that 40 years ago started as a budget brand for Scandinavia’s HiFi Klubben chain is making something of a return to its affordable roots with the Kupid. At £299 a pair, these pint-sized ‘bookshelf’ speakers are a universe away from the £85,000 KORE, but both are said to be built according to DALI’s ‘core’ design principles.

If you’re looking at the legend on the tweeter surround of Acoustic Energy’s new loudspeaker and wondering how a brand that was established in 1987 can launch a 40th Anniversary Edition model in 2025, the answer is simple. When Acoustic Energy founder Phil Jones began work on his original AE1 design [HFN Jan ’89], seeking an ‘accurate monitor’ for his recording studio, he certainly wasn’t intending to launch a consumer audio company. But the speaker, a compact two-way that was groundbreaking in its use of metal diaphragms for both bass/mid and treble drive units, caught the eye and ear of audiophiles. And now it’s back...

When we first saw MoFi Electronics’ SourcePoint 888 floorstander [HFN Jan ’25], its sheer size, at the £5599 price, raised an eyebrow. But designer Andrew Jones (ex-ELAC, TAD, KEF) hasn’t stopped there. Selling for £8800, the company’s new flagship takes the style and shape of the ’888 and scales it up, resulting in cabinets measuring 1239x394x505mm (hwd) and weighing 72.6kg.

The giant professional KM1 apart, KEF has been pretty quiet in the large loudspeaker market during the past year or two. The Reference series has run on without much fanfare, and most of the action has been with the budget ‘C’ range, particularly the highly competitive Coda, now in Mark 3 guise.