SB Acoustics Rinjani speaker kit: 2.5-way floor-standing speakers.

SB Acoustics Rinjani, Rinjani Be and Rinjani Tx: kit overview

Designer Type Build Versions
SB Acoustics 2.5-way floor-stander, bass reflex (dual rear ports) Easy with SB's cabinet and assembled crossover; a serious woodworking job if you build the cabinet Rinjani, Rinjani Be, Rinjani Tx

Short answer: the Rinjani is SB Acoustics' 2.5-way floor-standing kit: two 6.5" Satori mid-woofers and a Satori tweeter per speaker, in a tall ported cabinet with the same faceted, slightly reclined front as its smaller sibling, the Ara. It comes in three versions that share one cabinet: the standard Rinjani (ring-dome tweeter), the Rinjani Be (beryllium tweeter) and the Rinjani Tx (TeXtreme mid-woofers and tweeter). With SB's ready-made cabinet and assembled crossover, it's a screwdriver-and-soldering-iron job. Building the cabinet yourself is a serious woodworking project.

A quick note before we start: we haven't built or listened to the Rinjani. This is an overview of what's in the kit and what's involved, not a review. Everything about how it's designed and how it performs on paper comes from SB Acoustics' own pages and manuals.

What SB says about it

SB describes the Rinjani as a 2½-way floor-stander built with its top-line Satori drivers, and points to the Ara as the smaller speaker "with similar design goals". The design notes SB highlights:

  • A faceted baffle to reduce high-frequency diffraction (sound bouncing off the cabinet edges).
  • A front reclined by 7° for time alignment between the drivers, which SB's manual says allows a simpler crossover.
  • The crossover in its own sealed chamber in the base, with a slanted divider to cut down standing waves.
  • 18 mm MDF with internal bracing, and wedge-shaped inner rear walls behind the mid-woofers.
  • Dual rear ports (two 50 mm ports), which SB says spread port resonance and lower compression.

"2.5-way" means both 6.5" drivers work together in the bass, but only the upper one carries on up to meet the tweeter. On SB's schematic the lower driver is rolled off early by its own large inductor.

SB's published specs

Rinjani Rinjani Be Rinjani Tx
Tweeter Satori TW29R ring dome Satori TW29BN beryllium Satori TW29TXN-B-8 TeXtreme
Mid-woofers 2 x 6.5" Satori MW16P-8 (paper) 2 x 6.5" Satori MW16P-8 2 x 6.5" Satori MW16TX-8 (TeXtreme)
Crossover frequency 3,000 Hz 2,300 Hz 2,400 Hz
Frequency range (±3 dB) 42 Hz to 25 kHz 42 Hz to 30 kHz 45 Hz to 32 kHz (no tolerance given on SB's site; ±3 dB in the manual)
Sensitivity (2.83 V/1 m) 89 dB 89 dB 88 dB
Max SPL 107 dB 107 dB 106 dB
Nominal impedance 4 Ω 4 Ω 4 Ω
Recommended amplifier 50 to 200 W 50 to 200 W 50 to 200 W
Enclosure Bass reflex, tuned to 35.5 Hz same same
Cabinet 18 mm MDF, 1,009 x 190 x 464 mm (H x W x D) same same
Weight, assembled 22.42 kg each 22.42 kg 22.5 kg

All figures are SB Acoustics' own. Small mismatches: SB's site says 1,010 mm tall for the standard and Be, the manuals say 1,009 mm; and two manuals label the weights "pair" where the Tx manual says "each". Per speaker is the sensible reading.

Which version?

All three use the same cabinet and ports, so the choice comes down to drivers and the crossover that goes with them.

  • Rinjani: SB's ring-dome tweeter and paper-cone mid-woofers. By far the most affordable.
  • Rinjani Be: SB's beryllium-dome tweeter and a revised crossover at 2.3 kHz. The two tweeters cost more than the four mid-woofers.
  • Rinjani Tx: TeXtreme (spread-tow carbon) mid-woofers and tweeter, with a crossover SB says was completely revised.

Each version has its own crossover, so the parts aren't interchangeable. Pick one and build to its schematic.

The parts

Drivers for a pair of speakers (four mid-woofers, two tweeters). Each link shows today's price:

Mid-woofers (x4) Tweeters (x2)
Rinjani MW16P-8 TW29R or TW29R-B
Rinjani Be MW16P-8 TW29BN or TW29BN-B
Rinjani Tx MW16TX-8 TW29TXN-B-8

SB's manuals also allow the white-cone MW16PNW-8 in place of the MW16P-8.

Then add:

  • Crossovers: Rinjani assembled crossover pair, one per version (ring dome, beryllium or TeXtreme)
  • Cabinets: SB's ready-made pairs in satin or gloss finishes, Rinjani cabinet pair, in several finishes. Or build your own from SB's drawings, plus glue, damping and terminals.

Or get the full kit, with every part for a pair in one go: SB Acoustics Rinjani speaker kit (all three versions).

What's involved

With SB's ready-made cabinets and crossovers

SB's manual walks through it step by step. In short:

  1. Cut the supplied damping to SB's cutting pattern (eight pieces per speaker) and fit it.
  2. Take the pedestal off the base and screw the crossover onto it. Feed the three pairs of speaker wires up through the bottom panel and seal the holes with hot-melt glue.
  3. Wire the terminal plate, refit the pedestal, and pull the cables up through the bracing.
  4. Connect and fit the drivers into the cabinet's threaded inserts. Note: the standard and Tx schematics connect the tweeter in reversed polarity, and the Be schematic marks its tweeter with a warning symbol. That's deliberate. Follow the schematic, not your instincts.

Building the cabinet yourself

SB publishes full cabinet drawings (17 pages). This is the Ara's angled design stretched to a metre tall: a reclined, faceted front, wedge-shaped rear walls, a slanted crossover-chamber divider and a separate pedestal. That's a lot of angled cuts and careful glue-ups. Keep the internal dimensions, ports and driver positions exactly as drawn. Building the cabinet covers the techniques.

Building the crossover yourself

Counting from SB's schematics:

  • Rinjani: 8 parts: two resistors, three capacitors and three inductors. A manageable first crossover.
  • Rinjani Be: 11 parts: four resistors, four capacitors and three inductors.
  • Rinjani Tx: 13 parts: five resistors, three capacitors and five inductors, plus an optional three-part impedance-compensation network SB recommends with valve (tube) amplifiers.

Passive crossovers explained covers layout and parts.

Who it suits

  • Good fit: anyone who likes the Ara's design but wants a floor-stander for a bigger room, with a second mid-woofer per side. Also a good step into DIY with the ready-made cabinet.
  • Think about: it's a 4-ohm load, so you need an amp that's happy with 4 ohms (SB recommends 50 to 200 W). Each speaker is just over a metre tall and about 22 kg built. And the Be and Tx versions nearly double the driver bill over the standard Rinjani.

SB's documents

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