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Raidho D1 audition


Two weeks ago I have heard the Raidho D1 speakers in a hi-end shop in Amsterdam (A10 audio). Surprisingly, but luckily for me, I was the only one attending the "morning" demonstration. I could listen all the CD that I brought with me sitting in the sweet spot and without any disturbances.

The D1 where driven by the Jeff Rowland Corus preamp and the 625 power amp. There were two CD players hooked up, i.e. the dCS Vivaldy and an EMM labs single box retailing at roughly 30k euros (I did not asked which model it was). The dealer told me that the system was optimized for the dCS player, meaning he has used his most expensive cables costing around 30K euros. He did not mention which brand of cables he used and I did not bother asking as I find it silly to use cables that cost as much as the pre-power combo (we all have our prejudice in this regard).

The D1s sounded certainly nice, very detailed and fast but also with a very full midrange. Resolution-wise, one would have a rather hard time to find speakers that are more transparent in the midrange and highs (IMO of course). Speed-wise, while very fast, the D1s are not as fast as horns or electrostatics. The stereo image and soundstage were quite good (given the fact that the listen room was filled with other electronics and speakers) and together with the very detail and full midrange made for a rather impressive presence of the speaker in the room. That is, voices and most instruments where rendered with full body and size with a confidence typically associated to large speakers (at least in my experience).

I could not really judge the bass output of the D1s, as the room was quite large (given the D1s' size), plus the position of the speakers in the room was not chosen to give the best bass response but rather a good stereo image and soundstage. Nonetheless, it seemed decent. However, given the level of performance in the midrange and high departments, it would be a pity to not add one or two top of the line subwoofers (in fact as many as necessary) to achieve a world class performance also in this department.

I have quite a bit of experience with moderately high priced monitors like Dynaudio C1 (mk 1&2), Focal Micro Be & Diablo, Wilson Duette and Vivid Audio V1.5. Among these monitors, the Focal Diablo sounds the closest to the D1s, i.e. fast and detailed. The Vivid V1.5 has also a similar presentation. While the D1s sounded much better than any of these monitors, I find it hard to say how much better it really is. Not only I have listen these speakers in different system and room and at very different times, but one should not underestimate the effect made by the dCS Vivaldi in the D1 demo I had. (The Vivaldi was a marvelous cd player to say the least, though at 90K euros ones should not be surprised.) Maybe I should also mention here that the dealer told me that in his opinion the D1s are above the Magico Q1 (while being cheaper here in Europe). Since I have never listened the Q1s, I can not make any comment in this regard, but the dealer carries Magico speakers for a long time and has first hand experience with the Q1s.

I would conclude by saying that I was quite impress with the Raidho D1 speakers. 17k euros (including stands) is certainly a lot of money for a monitor with limited bass, but the reality is that 17K represents only a fraction of the price of other expensive monitors, e.g. TAD CR1. (I would be really interested to hear from people who have listen the TAD CR1 monitor and also the Raidho D1s).

Finally, I should acknowledging A10 audio in Amsterdam (www.a10audio.nl) for putting together a very nice demo.
nvp
nvp OP
317 posts
 

Hi Kiwi, your answer is fair.

I've read your blog twice, i.e. the discussions about Raidho. Also, if I remeber correctly I have actually advised Lapierre who pm me to contact you about Raidho. I think I am not the only one here who would have preferred to read here a few short bullet points highlighting the main differences. Like you said, your post is wordy. I am certainly not criticizing you as I often write too long posts :). Moreover, your experience with these monitors seemed to be a bit limited as you did not compared the monitors in your room so I can understand your reluctance.

Regarding Razmika, he behaves like a 5 years old, i.e. asking stupid questions and invoking silly arguments because he did not received the answers he wanted immediately...

Regarding your remark about the physics lab, I believe you are hinting to the fact that I am a physicist. Indeed I am. Unfortunately, while our labs/experiments may be well organized the results are often chaotic. Consequently, the situation in the lab is pretty much like the one in the real world, i.e. it takes many months to actually learn something useful.

Regarding the hi-tech and ground breaking science that goes into all these speakers, IMO opinion it is 90% marketing mambo-jambo. Neither Magico nor Raidho has the technology and/or the proper understanding to develop any of these technologies. In fact these techniques are around for quite some time and are rather well understood and mature. Razmika was right when he said that chemical vapor deposition is a common technique, but then so is finite element analysis employed by Magico. IMO opinion neither Magico nor Raidho brings anything that new to the table. On one hand there are many manufactures putting expensive drives in rectangular boxes, and on the other hand ribbon tweeter are expected to outperform dome ones as they are much much lighter. Of course, I am bashing here the ridiculous advertisements, not the way the Magico and/or Raidho speakers sound.

Paul
razmika
45 posts
 
>>That should be called out because the comments were reckless, ignorant and demonstrably without factual knowledge..

And what kind of information do you have to counter my factual knowledge? Are you disputing Young’s modulus or the fact that the same process is used on drill bits? Please explain to us why a 10 um thick carbon is consider a “diamond” when Accuton pure diamond diaphragm is about 250 um?
If you have nothing to add but to regurgitate Raidho marketing scheme, at least have the curtsy to tone down your attack on me.
razmika
45 posts
 
Nep and Kiwi,
You are way out of your elements, both in knowledge and in manners. A bit difficult to argue here when AG posts replies, if at all, once every 24h or so.
nvp OP
317 posts
 
Razmika, I assume that in your last post you were refereeing to me, and by
mistake you typed "Nep" instead of "Nvp". I certainly
do not want to argue with anybody here. On the contrary, I am trying to have
a civilized dialog. I certainly did not attack anybody here, neither did I say
anything bad about any speaker manufacture.

I would very much like to know how did you arrive at the conclusion that
Raidho speakers are colored and Magico speakers are not? What type of
measurements did you do? Where did you performed these measurements?

Also, since you are so knowledgeable and I am so ignorant and impolite, I
would very much like to know what is the relation between the Young
modulus and:
1) the level of odd and/or even harmonic distortions in a conical membranes
2) the eigen modes of a conical membrane
3) the degeneracy of the eigen modes of a conical membrane
dracule1
1,085 posts
 
I have a strong music background having trained in classical guitar mostly and regularly attend live performances at very good halls for classical, jazz, big band music. The Raido D1 is the closest thing to the real thing I've heard as long as you don't play them at 105+ dB continuously and are willing to as sacrifice sub bass. The D1 play at a different level than C1.1. It is more dynamic, has greater purity in the midrange, better sound staging at high volume, subjective more extended bass, and is quieter between notes. Most importantly,it is the most tonally accurate speaker I've come across for vocals, stringed and wind instruments, and percussion within its volume limitation. It is only equalled by the finest electrostat and ribbon planar speakers (eg, Quad 57, CLS, Apogee). The Raidho tweeter is one of the most accurate no fatiguing tweeter available.

The Magico I've heard are better suited for rock and the like where bass thump and dynamics are the primary virtues. They are not tonally accurate as th Raidho.
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