Raidho D3 vs Magico Q3

A few months ago I ended my quest to upgrade my speakers, auditioning models from these two brands in the process.

Before listening to the Magico's, the salesman asked if I preferred "analytic" speakers or one's which were "musical".  I'd never heard it posed that way..."musical" was my answer.

I much preferred the sound of the Raidho's (though I eventually purchased something else), I found them to sound much more "musical" to me.

I thought the Magico's need to be driven hard to sound good, not so with the Raidho's.  Both seemed to have outstanding sound stage and detail.  The shop originally had the Raidho's driven by a tube amp, but the other customer thought they sounded "dull" and the dealer said the tubes needed replacement, hooked a modestly-powered power amp to them and (to me) they sounded better.  I was thinking the ribbon tweeters in the Raidho's would be "too much" but did not find that to be the case.

Both are excellent speakers. Both also sound best when set up properly and driven with good electronics. I'll admit I've only heard the Magico's at shows (not the most ideal rooms). The Magico's never drew me into the music but have excellent details and dynamics.

That said when I heard the Raidho's they were in a better rooms and not at shows. They immediately drew me into the music. To me there is more 'air' between the instruments and vocals (lower noise floor - Yes the Diamond coating does lower the noise floor). After hearing both the D1's and D3's I could not get that sound out of my head. I owned Dyn C1 Signatures at the time. So I went for the D1's thinking I could add my Rel B3 to pick up the last octave. I just couldn't get the B3 to blend in properly (muddied up the mids too much for my taste). I have since upgraded to the D2's (D3's would be too much for my room). I am considering upgrading my D2's to the D2.1 but I have to hear it first. From someone on a different forum he had his D5's upgraded to the D5.1's. He stated the noise floor dropped even more and dynamics increased.

As far as amplification I started with an Octave V110 tube integrated (approx 90W with Ei KT90's). At low to moderately loud the Octave was excellent but kind of lost it when pushed to the max (which is rare for me). I now have the Aavik U300 from Raidho and honestly at my normal listening levels the U300 has just a 1/2 hair better 'control' of the music. But when pushed is a lot better.

At the price levels of both Magico and Raidho you really need to hear them yourself. I would also suggest when listening to Raidho make sure they are the D3.1's.

Best of Luck  

As a Q3 owner I can speak to that setup but unfortunately cannot compare to the D3. All I will say is to really get the best from this speaker I found it worked best with plenty of power, and tube power at that. I use VTL MB 450III. I tried a 100W amp at first but this really left the speaker sounding very flat. Magicos are often demoed with big solid state amps and this combination can exacerbate any edge.

Also make sure they are located and teed in perfectly in your room. I have them widely spaced with a slight toe in,. getting it balanced so each is perfect made a big difference. Finally tuning the cabinets with Synergistic Research HFTs was very beneficial, not because they resonate but because these big heavy reflecting surfaces interact with the room -- this is in the context of an extensively treated room (see my system)

Finally there is a lot of discussion of the direct comparison you want in the comments section here
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/masterpieces-from-avantgarde-and-raidho/

@folkfreak - Nice article. Funny he mentioned Robert in the comments. I met him at Le Roy's after he got the D5's (I helped install Le Roy's D5's and Soulution). We tried to get Robert to compare the Q7's to the D5's but he didn't because the one cd he wanted to hear he left at home. He mentioned that was his absolute reference. Anyhow he had his Q7's listed here. Not sure if he sold them yet and I did ask through the messaging system what he was looking to replace them with. He wasn't sure.

In that article Jonathan mentioned Ansuz. I have to agree with him. I have the MainzD8 power distribution - ceramic power cords and ceramic speaker cables. October 2015 Lars from Raidho and my local dealer came to my home with a suitcase full of goodies. All I can say when he put the Diamond DTC power cord in my system I was gobsmacked. Then Lars added a Diamond digital cable along with 3 Darkz Diamond footers under my Aavik and I could not believe the improvements. It lifted my system to a whole new level like I have never heard in any system.

The problem I see with that article is the fact that Jonathan is a Raidho owner. I'm guessing like me he may be a bit biased