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Why So Many Raidho Speaker For Sale?

If Raidho speakers are so great, why are there so many pairs for sale here?  These are not inexpensive speakers by any means and it seems at least every other day there is a pair for sale with some people having them only a few weeks to a few months, and they are really taking a bath on them.  What gives?  Are they not as great as they are made to be?  Is Jonathan Valin a shill for the company?

I heard the 4.1 diamond at Blink High End north of Boston and was very unimpressed.  I have heard many other highly regarded speakers for much less money sounding wonderful.  So, what gives?

128x128stereo5
jl35
3,977 posts
 
gator and mapman are of course correct
jl35
3,977 posts
 
and to also factor in the number of ads from Raidho dealers...
chronoglidesky's avatar
chronoglidesky
45 posts
 
I am a Raidho owner (D3s), and as such I have an interest in knowing what the "stats" are regarding volume and prices here on a'gon.
It seems that the number of D-level speakers offered for sale was (and remains) pretty small (including dealers).
Not sure exactly what evidence stereo5 has for stating "there so many pairs for sale". As far as I see it the volume was small and commensurate with the price-band (very high = not many, very low = lots).
However, stereo5 does make a valid point wrt price/quality -- no-one will ever get that equation fully solved. I was probably in attendance when Mr. stereo5 heard the D5s (there was an open house at Blink). They sounded good, but were we also hearing the mega-high-end Aavik mono blocks and pre-amp which were used also?
Staging and depth was generally terrific but a couple of highly rhythmic tracks did seem to lack a certain "punch" -- but then again adding a pair of JL subs into the mix could be a winning combo (per Jonathan Vallin's recent review).
One observation I have wrt pre-owned availability & numbers ... I certainly have noted a large number of D'Agostino Momemtums for sale (not only in US but also in UK). Do I read anything sinister here or is this an artifact of D'Agostino's market share/dominance? Ditto for Wilson speakers?

Finally: bo1972's comment wrt use of diamond of a load of codswallop - the drivers in D-series have fully diamond coatings, diamond coating over ceramic. This is achieved using a very high Voltage bath which "fires" carbon atoms at exceedingly high velocity [resulting in the impact pressure being exceedingly high]. This technology is well-established in scientific instrument manufacture (i.e., for electronic microscopes) and does take a LOT of energy and a lot of time (ceramic "coating" takes about 5-6 days for a 6in driver and diamond coating adds an extra few days on to of that).
stereo5's avatar
stereo5 OP
6,384 posts
 

I did hear them at the open house at Blink.  I probably ran into you and didn't notice.  That's one of the problems with revealing speakers, it's hard to tell how much the electronics and source  come into play.  When I first posted and said the D series, I believe I was mistaken. I have seen a mix of all the series, not just the D.  I also have seen a lot of Scansonic (poor mans Raidho perhaps?) too.  Of course the Scansonic has no bearing on the Raidho.

I had been thinking in relatively small amounts of speakers sold in proportion to the ones for sale on Audiogon.  I wrongly assumed most couldn't or wouldn't purchase the really expensive ones due to high cost.   As much as I love music, I would never spend as much on a set of speakers than what I spent on our home.  Then again, there are some very wealthy people in the world and to them 225K is like 2,500.00 to  most of the rest of us.

bo1972's avatar
bo1972
2,789 posts
 
The last time we auditioned Raiho speakers it was done by the distributer. During listening we heard ( again) the distortion in the tweeter. We had the same experience in some shows at the past.

There was some depth, but for these prices I want a holographic stage to die for. And not just some depth.

The only reason why they use small drivers is based on the looks. They are small, but the drivers are not capable of playing loud.

Often the sound became stressed but also harsh in the mid en high frequencies.

Listen to an AMT tweeter, and you never want any Diamond dome or beryllium dome back.

With the cheaper Mcintosh the 802D3 sounded stressed and very unpleasent. For the Utopia line of Focal we had several demos with the same kind of problems in the high frequencies.

Even the expensive Sonus Faber showed us many sss in the high frequencies. It is time to quit dome tweeters. Ribbon is a nice technique, but compare it to AMT. And you will think differently.

It sounds so much more natural without any stress. The stage is so much bigger. When you hear the same music with all the differences in height of the instruments and voices the music is played in a different league.

This league needs to be played and heard. And then we will talk again!
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