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

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.

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!
I have no such problems in the highs with my Rockport Altair's. I'll put them up against any electrostat  or ribbon speaker. I hate Heil tweeters in all speakers I have heard them in.
Scansonic are indeed "the poor mans Raidho" ... the blurb I heard by the distro (at AXPONA) was that "Scansonic have a lot of the Raidho DNA" since Michael Borreson designed both - which seems to be a reasonable claim.
Hearing that top-of-the-line  Raidho-Aavik-Ansuz system all together (at Blink) was great, but it's hard to judge exactly *what* I heard other than I heard one bad muvva of a system, unobtainable by a mere mortal like myself ... but there certainly is some deep discounting to be had for ex-demos in the high-end in general - per A'gon listings.

One thing I *cannot* criticize about Raidhos is the top end range. I live with these speakers and that tweater and they work wonderfully well for all sorts of music (from [glorious] pre-war Delta blues to modern minimal techno dub), so the comment by bo1972 is one I really cannot agree with. But that's OK, each to their own.

I must admit - I was also torn between Rockports and Raidhos. I will certainly demo Rockports along with Raidho's when I next upgrade.