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

Showing 8 responses by kiwi_1282001

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.
Thanks for the write up Nvp.

The listening environment sounds far from ideal, particularly your observations about room size, speaker positioning and the proximity to other loudspeakers. I think it is saying something to come away impressed under such circumstances.

A couple of questions if I may?

First, did the dealer say how he arrived at his opinion that the Raidho D1 was better than the Magico Q1?

Second, do you know how many hours the D1 speaker had been run in for? Deliveries of the D1 have been pretty recent.
05-25-13: Starfi3ld
Dracule1, how does the C1.1 compare to the D1s? When you mention extra slam, can it be compared to the c2.1s?

Regards,

Boon.

Hi Boon. I may be able to help. I own the Raidho C-1.0 and the Raidho D-2 and have auditioned the C-1.1 and D-1. I have highlighted the differences between the C-1.1 and the D-1 in my Blog
Hi Razmika,

Please illuminate what evidence you have to substantiate the claim that the diamond layer applied to Raidho D-series mid/woofers amounts to marketing BS?


08-07-13: Razmika
[ ]
BTW, the so called "diamond" woofer, is also a bit of marketing BS. You can vaporize carbon on just about anything. It is not very expensive, and at this level, not very effective. Definitely not to be confused with drivers like the Accuton diamond domes.

I hope I’m wrong but the above comment has the look and feel of uninformed mudslinging to me.

To begin with, the diamond layer has nothing to do with vaporized carbon.

The process is made by a particle accelerator and has nothing to do with vapor deposits. The layer built by Raidho is structurally very close to pure diamond and is approximately 140 times harder than the ceramic material on their ceramic cones. Pure diamond would be 200 times harder. The fact that it’s “only” skin layers can be looked upon like building a composite sandwich material, using the incredible strength and hardness on the outside skin layers, separated by a softer and damped aluminum/ceramic core. This really has two major benefits that you just can’t achieve with a solid diamond material the first is being stiffer and better damped for a much lower weight, second is the ability to use diamond on the bigger drivers. Raidho claim that the Diamond membrane has its resonance breakup above 20 KHz and the Ceramic driver is at 12.5 KHz which reportedly was already better than any other manufacturer.

More details can be found on Raidho’s D-Series CES 2013 press release. Suggest you have a read.

To your other point on Accuton’s diamond domes – yes indeed Accutone have a small tweeter (not a woofer, like the Raidho D1 employs) which uses a different CVD process to apply the diamond.

Why you’d apply diamond to a tweeter is open to much debate, but what we can be more certain of is that the Raidho ribbon has a weight which is approx. 1/30th of the Accuton diamond dome and because of that it has approximately 30 times more speed and micro resolution as the critical current required to make the diaphragm move is also 30 times less than any dome!

Little wonder then that audio reviewer after audio reviewer (Valin, Gregory, Thomas, Fritz, Kershaw et. al.) report the Raidho tweeter to have incredible resolution sans listener fatique.
Hi Nvp, In reply to your note:

First, for a comparison between the Raidho C1.1 and D1 I linked Boon (who asked) to the page on my blog that covered that. Just scroll down to post #116. Not too hard for you I hope? The post was way too wordy to cut and paste here.

Second, after chiding the thread about “mudslinging” and fabricated Magico opinion, Razmika disingenuously (as in hypocritically) goes on to state that Raidho’s diamond woofers are “marketing bullshit”, “not expensive” and “not effective”. That should be called out because the comments were reckless, ignorant and demonstrably without factual knowledge and precisely an example of what he was asking others not to do.

Finally, this is a forum not a physics lab. Forums are about opinion - you are wasting your time trying to bring method and order to that. Reality does not speak for itself here. Magico’s are “cold and dry” and Raidho’s are “fast and sweet”. The reality is neither statement is meaningful since there are too many uncontrolled variables. One of the biggest problems in subscribing attributes to loudspeakers comes down to the unavoidable fact that the speaker is at the end of a chain of other components, and that chain (particularly the amplifier) will impose its own character on the signal the speaker reproduces.
Hi Dracule,
I think you make some valid points.

Taken alone, a measurement of frequency response provides
little more than an indicator of the spectral-balance;
which, although an important audible parameter, is hardly an
accurate indicator of overall reproduction accuracy.

Further, I believe the measurements Usermanual cites are for
the earlier version C-1.0 loudspeaker, since superseded by
the C-1.1 which introduced refinements to both the tweeter
and woofer.

If we are being strictly objective about things, the
fabulous Magico Q1 loudspeaker was also measured by MC to
have a depression from 1.2 to 4.5 KHz which “averaged” 3dB,
and an energy prominence at 5 KHz. Does that make the
Magico a poor speaker? Not at all. Criticizing the
performance of a loudspeaker solely from a review of its
measurable parameters is a bit like writing a restaurant
review directly after reading the list of the food
ingredients .
Hi Apdoc2004,

Congratulations on the purchase of the Raidho C1.1's. I know you were also considering the Magico Q1, TAD CR1 and Dynaudio C1.

Re your question on cables - I will send you a separate message.