Caesar,
The quickest way to destroy trust in a product is to quote negative information with no firsthand experience. There is a SPL limitation for ONE
Raido model (The D3). I agree that for a model in this sort of price range,this is not positive, even though this occurs at an SPL which is unsustainable
without damage to ones ears. However, it is totally irresponsible for you or anyone else to try and paint a company's entire product line with a negative brush on the basis of an issue with one model and which the company is addressing. The D3 is extraordinary in its musical reproduction. Have a listen.
You and anyone else are sure to be amazed.
You got a point. My intention is definitely not to kill this brand, but to create awareness. As I said in a post above, they make great speakers. A variety of reviewers, not just guys who have a very niche taste along with a loud mouth, have written positively of them. I have heard raidhos as well as Ebens years ago, and they are very respectable. I am sad, not happy, having to write about this.
But let’s also remember that this is as much about high end audio hobby as it is about Raidho. Our once highly prevalent, yet currently avant-garde, hobby has no media. Thus we have to watch our backs ourselves.
And don’t you think that the people at BMW forum wouldn’t be lighting it up discussing a Porsche model that couldn't get up to 60 mph? And don't you think Ford people were laughing when Mercedes of then combined Mercedes/ Chrysler were having quality problems that forced out their flamboyant rock star CEO Schrempp?
Now I realize that this is a moment of schadenfreude for Raidho’s competitors. I’m sure guys like David Wilson , who got video upon videos on youtube of his guys crafting, rubbing, and painting the speakers in slow motion, is laughing and thinking what a bunch of careless slobs and schmucks the guys in Denmark are. But this is a sad time for our industry.
Yet my hope is that after putting this up to public scrutiny the famous reviewers will not put the high end speakers to just a bit more scrutiny before gushing the superlatives. (In fact, there is a famous reviewer who has a reputation for coming into a room for 5 minutes and asking the system be turned on as loud as possible, and then leaving…He obviously missed this one!)
After all, this is high end audio. The market has shifted from the stereotypical disheveled, unshaven, unwashed schlub audiophile with gear from 70’s, spinning records in his basement - to guys who are spending as much money in a pair of speakers or amplifiers as they would spend on a shiny luxury automobile.
The schlub audiophiles are a Large market segment, and they don’t mind futzing and putzing with their old gear. But the segment of the guys who are spending the big money are younger and busier.
They are buying the engineering and craftsmanship, but more importantly, they are buying a dream. That dream is an illusion of performers in their very home...
And reviewers seem to comply. Check out Jonathan Valin, the biggest Raidho enthusiast in the media today, who seems to be getting over his analytic period and cheerleading that has so greatly tarnished his reputation. With Magico Q5 out of his system, and Raidho’s in, Valin is showing what a great, talented writer he is in the recent TAS, talking about the new $30K, 2 box ARC phono preamp:
“…just put on any well-recorded LP—say Acoustic Sounds’ marvelous two-disc, 45rpm reissue of The Doors’ L.A. Woman (remastered by Doug Sax, no less)—and thrill to the Ref Phono 10’s newfound density of tone color, which gives the bass range, the power range, and the midrange the black marble solidity and three-dimensional substantiality—the wall of sound—that you only hear when listening to rock live (preferably in a small club with good monitors, good acoustics, a mixer who knows what he’s doing, and a really tight four-or five-piece band). Not only does the Ref Phono 10 add lifelike tonal weight and body to kickdrum, bass, and keyboard on a song like “L.A. Woman”; it also does wonders for Jim Morrison’s voice (“I did a little down about an hour ago”), which through the Ref Phono 10 sounds fuller and more immediate (which it should, BTW, since he reputedly recorded this vocal in the studio bathroom precisely in order to get a fuller sound) than it does through the lighter-weight Reference 2 SE or solid-state.
However...as great as this injection of tonal weight, color, and body is, what happens to dynamics is just as sensational. To put this plainly, you’re going to be lifted out of your chair when you hear and feel the impact of John Densmore’s rimshots, the tires-on-the-freeway throb of Jerry Scheff’s sensational Fender bass, and the almost-Morrison-like abandon of that glorious Robby Krieger guitar solo at the climax of “L.A. Woman” (after Mr. Mojo rises), which never, ever, fails to cause my mojo to rise, raising goosebumps on my arms and sending chills down my spine. What a great friggin’ song! As good as rock gets, IMO. And though I’ve heard it ten thousand times, it’s never thrilled me more on LP ….
Suffice it to say that in every sonic regard—from timbre, to dynamics, to image focus, to dimensionality, to soundstage width and breadth, to perceived realism—this is the best…”
Valin does a fabulous job of describing the illusion of what just about every audiophile wants – gear that sounds and feels real! He triggers the imaginative process that makes us see ourselves as an accomplished, dashing men that makes us want and as a result sells Porsches like hotcakes, makes teenagers get Air Jordans and leave all they got on the court, gets tycoons to buy trophy real estate properties, and makes little girls dress up like princesses. He does a great job of creating desire and yearning via this soft core audio porn. That dream creates a feeling of a world where life shines brightly despite all the hshit that is going on all around.
Yet Valin only talks about the high side of the hobby. In reality, there exists an ugly underbelly to high end audio that most of us have to deal with: delay of gratification while saving money ,the big no’s, the small no’s, the arguments with the spouse, moving heavy equipment, occasionally dinging it (whoops, that bump is only several $K, hauling different amps, hurting your back, cutting your hands as you lift it, getting new cables, getting wrong lengths of cables, hooking up, unhooking , finding cables of correct lengths, waiting another week for things to come in, moving the gear again, selling it, etc. What a PAIN IN THE ASS!!!!
Again, this is about Raidho as much as it is about what high end audio should be. I hope Raidho gets their act straight, and more importantly I hope the brand’s owners will find their dreams fulfilled. I hope other high end manufacturers will read this and get extra paranoid before releasing their product. To look over these screw ups is the same as to ask for more screw ups.
Cheers!
PS. My apologies to all for the images of Valin’s mojo rising.
