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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
dracule1
1,085 posts
 
Jonathan Valin of The Absolute Sound
dracule1
1,085 posts
 
Kiwi, sorry I forgot to respond to your post. I agree with you wholeheartedly. People who think they are objective and can distill the sound of a speaker based on anechoic FR measurement show there lack of understanding of how a speaker performs in our homes. The Raidho D series are special, aren't they?
kiwi_1282001
312 posts
 
Hi Dracule1,

Yes, there seems to be a thought collective out there subscribing to the notion that accuracy equals a ruler flat anechoic frequency response from 20Hz to 20 KHz.
Objectively this may be true – but there is a world of difference between what is measured in an anechoic chamber and what we actually end up listening to.

For one thing, and as you point out, our listening room acts like a big tone control. Many audiophiles are not aware of how badly their room damages sound quality. No matter how much one has paid for their loudspeakers, amplifiers and source and regardless of their published specifications, as soon as you put them into a typical living / listening room they will exhibit a horribly skewed frequency response. Without some form of correction, much of the sonic benefit therefore derived from more expensive hardware can to a large extent be masked by poor room acoustics.

For another, while our listening rooms are non-linear [with some exceptions like the terrific work of Stereotaipei] so are our ears! Not only are our ears less sensitive at frequency extremes they are also more sensitive in the 2-5 KHz range and have maximum sensitivity at around 3-4 KHz.

For these reasons I earlier wrote that criticizing the performance of a loudspeaker solely from a review of select measurable parameters is a bit like writing a restaurant review directly after reading the list of the food ingredients .

To your second point, yes, the Raidho D-Series is special. They are unique and by all accounts they are selling very well. Last weekend both Lars Kristensen and Michael Børresen of Raidho Acoustics were in Singapore to exhibit at a modest local audio show. Sales for Raidho have climbed rapidly in Asia so it was no surprise to see them both present. The Raidho D-1 held centre stage in a massive 110 square meter room and judging by the post show commentary was very well received by patrons.

I was also pleased to meet Sabai at the show. He was collecting new Raidho’s to replace his Joseph Audio Pulsars.
apdoc2004
50 posts
 
Hi Kiwi,
I recently bought a pair of Raidho C1.1 monitors. I know you use Nordost Heimdall (version 2) for interconnects and speaker wire. Have you tried other brands of cables with your Raidho D2 speakers? If so, did you the Heimdall to be significantly better (presumably due to the synergy between Raidho speakers and Nordost cables)? I would appreciate if you could also mention the other brand cables you have tried (if any).
Also, have you had a chance to compare with Frey and Tyr (version 2) speaker cables?
Thank you!
sabai
2,027 posts
 
It was a pleasure meeting Kiwi_1282001 at the Singapore show. I was very glad to have the opportunity to audition the D1s in such a large room. Talking to Michael and Lars was a real experience -- very informative.
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