Raidho D2.1

Nice to hear you are still digging your Raidho's, George! At one point I was using a 70 watt stereo amp and while it brought that tube magic, at louder volume the amp would sometimes distort on certain low bass notes. I now use VAC 200iq mono blocs which handle the tonal spectrum with ease and the sound is fabulous!

Tomorrow I'm going to a 'soft' Borresen speaker demo at my dealer. What I mean by a soft demo is with several other folks try to determine the best positioning. They are not broken in yet either. I'm not sure if he is willing to compare them to the Raidho's yet. My suggestion (I know it sounds stupid) would be to run 1 Borresen and 1 equivalent Raidho at the same time. The real demo will be in January when Mike and Lars are supposed to come. The speakers will be broken in by them.
Note: I did hear the 03's right out the box and my first impression was pretty neutral. After about an hour they sounded quite a bit better. In a way I hope they aren't much better or different because I just got the 3.1's in May. The scary part is there will be no discounting with the Borresens.

I heard the new Borresen speakers at RMAF 2018 and thought they sounded great (along with several other brands) but they did not trigger that well know audio related disease known as upgraditits. My more "modest" system continues to provide sonic joy! Perhaps prolonged exposure in a more controlled setting might yield a different result. I'm curious to hear your thoughts along the way, George...

Well we did not demo a Raidho and Borresen side by side. BUMMER IMO. Anyhow the Borresens are fantastic. The highs are even more airy - smooth and detailed than the Raidho's. We demoed the 01's - 02's and the 03's. Believe it or not but they are fairly close to each other as far as SQ. After owning the D1's - D2's - D2.1's and now the D3.1's I would say the 01's are between the D2's and 2.1's. Found out the the Borresens at the RMAF were prototypes with the 01's needing more fine tuning. Sure sounds like they have them dialed in now. Besides the highs being better the transients in the mids and lows are so much faster and more natural sounding.

My only complaint with the Raidho's is in the highs. Sitting in the sweet spot the highs are killer - but stand up and you lose some highs. Doesn't happen with the Borresen's. But when you stand up the mids get more forward with the 03's. Off axis is great with both speakers.

That said the Borresens had only a bit over 100hrs on them. After owning so many Raidho's I can say the tweeter will settle down after 350hrs. At around 650 hr the mids and lows settle down. Around 8-900hrs all of a sudden everything just snaps into place from top to bottom. IMO a tough but worth it break in. I would suggest for anyone looking for pre-owned stay away from low hour speakers if you really want what the Raidho's are known for. It's a very long and good story but with the D2.1's I had 4 brand new pairs. All took the same break in time frame which follows what I heard with the others as well.

Will I get the Borresens? As of now not if I have to cough up more cash. But that could change with more hrs. on the Borresens.