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
Dracule – I have been to Goodwins few times, and just for the record, they do not carry Wilson, nor have I seen any top of the line Avalon there. Again, you should be a bit more factual with your comments. In any case, I have never heard anyone describing the Magico the way you do. I mean, if Magico sound to you as if they were a Wilson, what would Wilson sound like? Since this is all subjective to you, one has to take in to account your comments on the Magico and conclude that the Raidho are extremely lean and anemic.

Kiwi_1282001 - the
>>fabulous Magico Q1 loudspeaker was also measured by MC to

You never heard me declaring that the Q1 are “most tonally accurate speaker I've come across” (Although , objectively they are more accurate than the Raidho). Nor did I say that the Raidho are not fabulous. One thing the Raidho are not and it is “accurate”. Even JV admits that they are more “beautiful” (i.e. colored) then “accurate”.
Usermanual, Actually they did back in 2001 to 2006, including the discontinued martin logan 4 tower statements. you really need to do your fact checking.

Who cares what JV says. If you buy equipment based on reviewers, you are in a sad state. He uses different electronics and cables than the rest of us. His hearing is no better than most of us. What matters is how the speakers sound to the end user, not what a reviewer says. So if Magico gets you off, go enjoy them if you can afford them.
Usermanual, what is the extent of your experience with the D1? Have you actually auditioned it in your home? What electronics did you use with the D1? What is the dimension of your room? What room treatments do you have? Have you measured your room modes and decay times? Do you have dedicated audio room with dedicated AC lines? Since you make yourself out to be such and expert on the Magico and Raidho, tell us how, where, and with what electronics you evaluated these speakers. I will happily provide you with the above info for my system.
JV says please. I would run the opposite way with any of his likes or recommendations.
Dracule - I am not interested in sharing opinions, I can assure you that we will not agree on much. I am interested in facts. You already dismissed objectivity and, quite frankly, subjectivity as well (“Who cares what JV says”). So basically, it looks to me that unless I agree with you, we will go nowhere with this. So, as you suggested to me, go enjoy your speakers and have a good weekend.
BTW, I think that we both picked our usernames appropriately (-;