BORRESEN C1 STANDMOUNT LOUDSPEAKERS REVIEW
Børresen C1 Standmount Loudspeakers are a good looking €15K speaker from the Audio Group Denmark stable. Stuart Smith takes a listen.
I won’t go into the whole background of Børresen, other than to let you know that Michael Børresen heads the brand up and that it is part of the Audio Group Denmark stable of products. If you want to know more about the company, you can read the write-up from when we visited them in Denmark in 2023
BUILD AND FEATURES OF THE BORRESEN C1 STANDMOUNT LOUDSPEAKERS
The Børresen C1 is a rear-loaded standmount loudspeaker that is handmade in Denmark and developed through the collaboration of Michael Børresen and Flemming Erik Rasmussen. Its design brings together Scandinavian aesthetic principles with proprietary acoustic engineering, with the stated aim of achieving a high level of musical realism. The cabinet is engineered with a focus on acoustic performance and mechanical self-damping, using thick milled hardwood laminates reinforced on the sides with 1 mm thick carbon fibre panels to increase rigidity. The speakers are finished in either black or white high gloss lacquer and include optional carbon fibre inserts as part of the exterior design. Mechanical resonance control is addressed at the base of the cabinet, which is designed to integrate Ansuz Darkz technology as part of the overall structure.
Driver technology is developed in-house and is central to the C1’s design. High frequencies are handled by the RP94 ribbon planar tweeter, which has an ultra-light moving mass of 0.01 grams. This low mass allows for fast response and high sensitivity, operating from 2.5 kHz upwards with an efficiency of 94 dB. The tweeter is intended to reproduce fine detail while maintaining low distortion, even during high transient peaks. Bass and midrange duties are covered by the Børresen DCC5 Neo driver, which uses a five-inch three-layer sandwich membrane made up of an aramid honeycomb core positioned between two carbon fibre skins. This construction is designed to provide high stiffness while keeping vibration levels extremely low. The driver motor system incorporates double copper caps on the pole rings, a design intended to lower inductance and reduce electromagnetic resonance, which in turn reduces the load placed on the connected amplifier.
The crossover design departs from conventional parallel networks and instead uses a serial crossover architecture. This approach is intended to maintain a phase-locked electrical current flow to the drivers within the filtering region. By diverting out-of-band currents, the serial design aims to create a more coherent filtering system, although it is acknowledged to be significantly more complex to implement than more common crossover configurations.
The dedicated C1 stand is designed as an integral part of the loudspeaker system rather than an optional accessory. The stands are constructed from the same robust wood composite material used in the cabinets and are free from iron components to avoid magnetic interference with the crossover network. Each stand is fitted with Ansuz Darkz S2t resonance control devices and can be further upgraded with additional Darkz units, allowing for increased levels of vibration management and resonance control within the system.
They are a modern-looking loudspeaker that is really well finished and put together. They measure 469 mm high, 204 mm wide, and 430 mm deep, which corresponds to 18.5 by 8 by 16.9 inches, and each speaker weighs 18 kg or 39 lbs. When mounted on the dedicated stand, the total height increases to 705 mm, with a width of 297 mm and a depth of 433 mm, equivalent to 27.7 by 11.7 by 17 inches, and the combined weight becomes 24.5 kg or 53 lbs. The loudspeaker has a stated frequency response of 45 Hz to 50 kHz and a sensitivity rating of 87 dB for 1 watt input. Nominal impedance is greater than 6 ohms, with a recommended amplifier power of more than 50 W.
Price for the Børresen C1 Standmount Loudspeakers is €15K which puts them in the mid-market nowadays.
Given that they are a modern-looking speaker, they should fit in with the modern home really nicely, but I also think that the juxtaposition of modern speakers and a more traditional interior will also work very well. Being rear-ported, some consideration needs to be given to their placement with regard to backwalls. Connection to the amps is via a single pair of good-quality binding posts, though given the narrow “groove” at the back of the speakers, I think banana plugs would be more suitable than spades. Spades do fit, but it’s a bit of a squeeze with the fairly chunky Tellurium Q cables I use in the reference system.
A minor point here. The C1s take up no less floor space than a slim floorstander, but I think this is the first time I’ve put a pair of standmounts in the main listening room and understood why folk go for standmounters over floorstanders. They look elegant, a little tall, but you get to see so much more of your space.
I’ve no complaints about the looks or the build of the speakers; everything is as it should be for a pair of speakers costing this much money.
SET UP
The Børresen C1 come with excellent packaging, with dedicated stands and instructions on how to put them together. Putting them together is a two-person job, and the instructions are a bit IKEA-like. Once you “get” one stand done (there was a bit of shouting as the instructions aren’t as clear as I’d like), the next one is a doddle. The speakers stand on pucks that Børresen call DARKZ, and there are specific slots in the bottom of the speakers that mate with the DARKZ perfectly.
After that, it’s a case of connecting them to the amps, messing about a bit with positioning, and there you go. I had them hooked up to our Electrocompaniet AW900 M amps via some Tellurium Q Silver Diamond speaker cables.
I had them about 3M apart and well away from the back and side walls. I found that a good deal of toe-in gave the best sound.
SOUND QUALITY
I’ve had the opportunity to listen to the C1s a good few times at shows, and I’ve always enjoyed them. I’ve got to the point where I’m fortunate enough to only accept review requests for kit I know I’m likely to enjoy, and this was very much the case with these speakers. I’ve known Michael Børresen for a good few years now, and whilst a lot of the techy stuff he goes on about goes right over the top of my head, there’s no doubt that he’s a clever fella and knows how to put a great-sounding speaker together.
I think the speakers had been used in the past, but ran them in for a good while anyway, as they had been sitting for some time in our house waiting to be put into the main system.
Listening to Plastikman (Richie Hawtin) and his stripped-back Plasticity recording, I noted that there is definitely a sweetspot when listening to these speakers with regard to where you sit. This is stripped-back techno that is little more than a drum machine and 303 acid box. Maybe this sounds an odd choice of track to use for review purposes, but I guess it’s the reviewers’ equivalent of listening to musical test tones. Anyway, I did notice with this track that the soundstage really does click into place when you move yourself into the hot seat. This is not to say that you can’t listen to the left and right of that spot; you can, as I’ll highlight later, but when you do sit in the hot spot, the focus is tremendous, and the mix becomes crystal clear with regard to what sounds have been placed where. What opens up is the space in this album’s production, and in that space is where the magic kind of happens. Sounds are held precisely in their space, and that space is given room to breathe. Even at low volumes, I was listening to this album early in the morning, the C1s are able to convey a purity of tone and the way that Hawtin filters and sculpts the fairly simple sounds present on this record. The comment about listening at low levels is an important one here; so many times I write reviews, and mention that to get the best out of a certain speaker, you need to crank the volume to a certain point. That effect is less pronounced with the C1s, and even at these low volumes, I didn’t feel I was missing anything. So, if you have a space where you can’t play loud or you listen at times when you need to keep the volume down a bit, these speakers might well be something of a revelation. No, you aren’t going to get the trouser-flapping bass that I love at these volumes, but detail is there aplenty, and nothing seems to be recessed or muted in the mix.
Later, pushing the volume a tiny bit further, I gave Adranne Lenker’s wonderful Bright Future a listen, and specifically the track Sadness As A Gift. If you don’t know this record, it’s kind of country, but don’t let that put you off, it’s lovely! Pushing the volume, I’d expected a touch of hardness to creep in, but that just doesn’t happen with the C1s; they remain smooth, detailed, and very easy to listen to. This is an acoustic record, and the ribbon tweeter works to add detail without that detail becoming overbearing. Lenker’s country-tinged vocal (listen to it and you will know what I mean) is portrayed with feeling, and this comes across in spades with the C1s I the system. These aren’t speakers in the “sledgehammer to crack a nut” sense; they feel like they are working with the music rather than fighting against it, and as a result, the music just flows out of them in a wave that washes over the listener. Yes, I’m used to a bit more bass that fills out the lower end of instruments and brings out their texture and timbre a little more, but that’s a constraint of the speakers’ size, and no amount of claims is going to make a smaller speaker perform beyond the laws of physics. If you do feel you want a little more in the bass department, Børresen will sell you a Bass module; I’ve heard them a few times, and they are excellent! However, back to the speakers in question, and I did end up listening to the whole of this album without thinking about anything but falling into the music.
Ghost Rider’s track Make Us Stronger is the modern-day equivalent of Keith Don’t Go; it gets played at least a couple of times at most shows. It is overplayed, but it is a good test track for putting a system through its paces. And you kind of need to forget what I said in the previous paragraph about bass response, because these speakers pump the bass out when you push the volume a good bit further. That clipped bass kick line sits centre stage and underpins the rest of the track. I’m missing nothing, and in this good-sized room (10x 5m), the C1s fill it with hard-hitting bass. But that’s only part of the story with the C1s given that as well as that front and centre bass, you also have a huge amount of detail, but that detail is not (as I mentioned earlier) at the expense of the speakers becoming harsh or distorted. This is a big production of a tune, and a lot is going on, to the point that it can become confused and a bit of a muddy mess on the wrong speakers. These aren’t the wrong speakers, and it sounds glorious; hard-hitting, detailed, and with a massive soundstage that extends beyond the speakers in every plane. Just before the 2-minute mark is an effected “vocal” sound, and that starts beyond the right speaker, moves out and into the room and to the right before resolving and eventually disappearing dead centre. Despite my pushing the volume here, the C1s don’t seem to be breaking a sweat, even in the complex and busy sections of this tune. I found myself listening to it over and over and rewinding to catch certain bits that stood out to me. Yes, the speakers did come even more alive at volume, but I stand by the comment I made with regard to low-level volume listening and their detail. Play some speakers at low level, and they sound flat and boring, push them to mid-volume, and they play nicely, push them further, and they collapse. The C1s seem to be able to pull off a pretty amazing trick of sounding great at lower volumes and really coming alive at loud volumes. I just had a look at the frequency response of these speakers, and it’s somewhat refreshing. The specifications claim they go down to 45Hz, and that is realistic for a speaker of this size. Speakers often claim they will go down to 30Hz, and I’ll often think, “Yeh, and what’s X in -X dB going to be?” The 45Hz is realistic, but I guess that they do go lower than this based on what I’m hearing. ROON throws a load more Ghost Rider and the like at me, and demonstrates really well that these speakers can really party, but party without losing definition and poise. Were I to keep these speakers, I’d kind of like to try a bass module or two, but I don’t think they’d be essential in this space. I have to say, the spell during the review process, where I listened to loud and “hard” music, I genuinely didn’t miss the 12” drivers of the reference ICON 12s; if anything, the C1s produced a tighter and faster bass response that pushed all the right buttones for me – and I say that as someone who loves a big bass driver. As I’m writing up my notes (I’m listening to Juno Reactor’s Golden Sun…Remixed), Lin has just come down into the listening space and said (and I quote) “The bass coming out of those is insane!” If you are looking for dynamics, look no further! The speakers remained in the system for a good while after this review was done and dusted, which says a good deal of what I thought of them.
I think I’ve said enough to give you an idea of what I reckon to these speakers.
QUIBBLES
Stands are a bit of a faff to put together until you click what you are doing. Once you know what you are doing, they are easy enough to sort out.
The back of the speakers narrows to a fairly narrow slot at the back (see pics), where you find a single set of binding posts. I use Tellurium Q speaker cables with (specifically) spades, and there’s not much room to get them in there – bananas are a better idea with these speakers, in my opinion.
CONCLUSION
The Børresen C1s are a bigish standmount loudspeaker that comes with dedicated stands and costs around 15K. Their specs say that they go down to 45Hz, but I reckon that they go lower than this, though I’m happy to be corrected. Whatever, playing techno at volume leaves me wondering if I actually need big floorstanders in our room. That bass is fast and precise.
Soundstaging is excellent, and they present spatial stuff in recordings really well.
Detail is wonderful, but not harsh or overplayed. Sometimes I get the sense that speaker designers have pushed the upper frequencies to give the impression of detail, but this is not the case with the Børresen C1s. They seem to be able to present detail and micro-detail (I hate that word) wonderfully well and without getting all in a tizz with high-frequency fizz and, er, tizz. This is not to suggest they are a warm speaker – they most certainly are not. They’re just detailed and without distraction or major colouration.
This is a hugely dynamic speaker!
They are quite insensitive at 87dB, and I’d suggest an amp with a decent amount of ooomph. The Electrocompaniet AW800M monoblocs worked excellently with these speakers!
There is always a bit of a caveat with any review, and here’s the one with this. The Børresen C1s are MY kind of speaker and do a lot of what I’m looking for in a speaker very well. Some people might want a more laid-back and more “pipe and slipper” presentation, and this is not what these loudspeakers are about…at all. They are excitingly dynamic, whilst being detailed, and free of colouration.
Probably the best standmount speakers I have had the pleasure of spending time with at home. I can’t give them anything else other than the very top award I’m able. I will be very sorry to get this set of speakers packed up and sent back. That said, I can’t wait to hear the M1s in this system!
AT A GLANCE
Build Quality and Features:
Stands are a two-man job and a faff to get to grips with until you click the method and the instruction sheet
They look great and are available in black or white
Ideally use bananas rather than spades as it’s tight aroud the bidning posts that are presented vertically rather than horizontally
Sound Quality:
Detail without distortion in the top end
Bass is fast, tight, and surprisingly low. You’ll not believe that this amount of bass is coming from such a small driver
Soundstaging is excellent
Sound good at low volume
Come alive at loud volume
Such a dynamic speaker
Value For Money:
I thought they were expensive for what you seem to be getting until I sat down and spent some time with them. Once I did sit with them for a while, that thought dissipated and transformed into “these are a bit of a bargain, really”
We Loved:
Detail at low volumes allows you to experience your music realistically
Crank the volume, and they really do sound magnificent
We Didn’t Love So Much:
Stands are a pain in the arse to put together, but solid and look perfect with the C1s on top
There’s not much room to get spades on the binding posts
Elevator Pitch Review: The Børresen C1 loudspeakers are a medium-sized but narrow standmounter that comes with a dedicated stand and costs around 15K. At low levels, they present plenty of detail and bass that allows you to get into your tunes realistically. However, they come alive even more when pushed a bit, but without becoming stressed or shouty. At these levels, the C1s have a really powerful, fast, and tight bass response. Soundstaging is pretty amazing, though at lower levels, being in the sweet spot is preferred. Push the volume, and you become enveloped in the music with effects and spatial cues being pretty amazing. I liked them a lot, and they are probably the best sub 20K standmout I’ve had in the house.
Price: £15 000, $17 500, €15 000
Stuart Smith
SUPPLIED BY AUDIO GROUP DENMARK
SUPPLIED SPECIFICATION
Dimensions
Speaker
H x W x D: 469 x 204 x 430 mm
H x W x D: 18,5 x 8 x 16,9 Inches
Weight: 18 kg 39 lbs
With Stand
H x W x D: 705 x 297 x 433 mm
H x W x D: 27,7 x 11,7 x 17 Inches
Weight: 24,5 kg 53 lbs
Specifications
Frequency response: 45Hz – 50KHz
Sensitivity: 87 dB/1W
Impedence: > 6 Ohm
Recommended Amplifier: > 50 W
1 x Tweeter: Børresen RP94 Ribbon Planar
1 x Driver: Børresen DCC5 Neo
Finish:
Black or white piano lacquer
