DANISH HIGH END LOUDSPEAKER BRAND RAIDHO UNVEILED THREE NEW DESIGNS AT MUNICH

Well it is great to be back in Munich for the High End Show! We have been waiting three years since the last one so brands have had time to develop new products, including Danish brand Raidho.

PRESS CONFERENCES AND PRODUCT LAUNCHES

Thursday at High End Munich means press conferences and product launches, and this year there were understandably loads to cover, with the press/trade days extending to the Thursday and Friday of the show.

Morten from Raidho took us through the new loudspeakers

Stuart and Linette owners of HiFi Pig and HiFi Pig reviewer Ian were at the show and picked out the most interesting and long-awaited events to cover for you, our readers. First off for Stu and Lin was Raidho on Thursday morning.

RAIDO ACOUSTICS HIGH END LOUDSPEAKERS

Danish brand Raidho Acoustics are known for their very high-end and highly listenable loudspeakers and are part of the DANTAX group of companies. Founded in 1972, DANTAX Radio A/S began producing loudspeakers under that original brand name. From 1977 to 1980 DANTAX they also owned Scanspeak. Now, a reborn High End manufacturer, DANTAX focuses on producing high-quality products under the brand names Raidho, Scansonic and GamuT The products are proudly Made In Denmark.

We loved the Raidho TD2.2 when we reviewed them, read more here.

Raidho Acoustics say that they have the same goals with all of their loudspeakers, whatever the price point. These are extremely low levels of noise and colouration of the sound, a dramatic, energetic sound with a very wide soundstage, detailed but with no fatigue, easy to listen to with an authentic sound close to the original recording and a ‘unique sonic holography’.

The Danes had been super busy during the Pandemic, developing new models, three of which we got to hear at the show.

There was the Raidho team on hand to greet us headed up by Raidho CEO Lars Venning, and Morten Kim Nielsen, Sales and Marketing Director at Raidho, introduced the new speakers.

RAIDHO X1T SUPER MINI MONITOR

First up was the Raidho X1t Super Mini Monitor. A compact and rather dainty looking stand mount speaker. The new X1t is based on the classic super mini monitor, the X1. This revised version seeks to pack as much performance as possible into a very small form factor. And finally, at a relatively low price, in comparison to performance.

Raidho X1t mini monitor next to the big daddy TD6

The Raidho X1t builds on the well-known Raidho Ribbon Tweeter, which actually is a Planar Magnetic Tweeter due to the tracks in the foil, which is only 20 milligram and 11 micron thick, so it has 50 times less mass in comparison to a conventional dome tweeter.

A big new breakthrough in recent years for Raidho was their use of Tantalum in their drivers and, unusually at this price point, this technology is in the X1t.

The Raidho ribbon tweeter

CERAMIC WITH TANTALUM COATING BASS DRIVERS

The ceramic/tantalum drivers have been designed to basically ‘keep up’ with the speed of the tweeters. The base of the driver membrane is an aluminium cone, which in itself, is very rigid and stiff. Raidho say that one of the challenges with aluminium is that it can have its own distinct sound/ringing. To eliminate this, their drivers are all coated with a thin layer of ceramics, adding to the first layers in the design. The coating is put on through a plasma process that binds the ceramic coating to the aluminium. With the aluminium-oxide ceramic Raidho cones, the first breakup mode was raised to 12,5kHz.

The t in X1t means Tantalum. Tantalum belongs to a class of metals known as refractory metals, which are defined by their strong resistance to heat and wear. Tantalum has a melting point of 2,996 °C, the fourth highest of all metals. This makes the membrane much stiffer and harder without adding any weight and thereby raising the breakup modes to15kHz. The motor system of the drive unit features an aerodynamic construction with high-level ventilation which increases dynamics and lowers distortion. High strength neodymium magnets are also used.

During the press conference, Morten handed round the different drivers from the new speakers and they really are works or very high level craftsmanship, they did get progressively heavier and harder to lift too. In comparison to the standard X1, better components have been implemented in the crossover and the enclosure has been redesigned internally to allow the airflow and bass reflex port to provide much higher bass output and quality.

“This year’s show was the best ever for Raidho and Scansonic. The response towards our new products was fantastic. One visitor said: “your products activate the same nerves as If you smoke weed. It gives a sense of relaxing and that everything is going to be alright”. We can’t say we disagree!”

Morten Kim Nielsen, Sales & Marketing Director Dantax Raidho

AN ENJOYABLE LISTENING SESSION

The high end system for the listening session included electronics from Moon, and of course the GamuT listening chair, which I enjoyed a restful time in listening to the system.

So, how do they sound?

We started with the Raidho X1t Super Mini Monitor as naturally, brands tend to start at the lower end of their new loudspeakers and work their way up to the bigger models, but to be honest these little beauties were the stand out speakers for me. I do love Danish speakers with ribbon tweeters and there is definitely a ‘Danish Sound’ of speakers that is fast, natural, and accurate but not tiring to listen to. Raidho speakers capture this superbly and for me, the dinky X1t was the star of the show. Possibly the expectation was less than that of the large TD6 flagships, which we shall come on to later, but the Super Mini Monitors deliver well beyond both their diminutive size and their price point. We started with Muddy Waters and then Morten switched to a track featuring the Stockholm Choir, this was seriously stunning with the tops and mids spellbinding and beautiful.

The Raidho X1t Super Mini Monitor are a small speaker with a huge soundstage and even delivered on the promised ‘holographic’ sound as you became immersed in the choral music.

And the price for these speakers? 5,800€…not cheap but they deliver on the Raidho sound promises at a fraction of the cost of some of their bigger siblings.

Raidho X1t (left) and X1.6

RAIDHO X1.6 COMPACT SPEAKER

Next up was the Raidho X1.6, a new addition to the Raidho X series, which does not feature the Tantalum drivers. Again, a very impressive speaker though I was probably spoiled by the previous one! We listened to Bob Dylan’s ‘Man in a long black coat’ and London Grammar’s ‘Hey Now’. They retail at 7,300€.

Raidho X1.6

RAIDHO TD6 STATEMENT LOUDSPEAKER

Even though it looks very similar to the Raidho D5 and D5.1, the flagship Raidho TD6 is a completely new development, with only parts of the visual appearance resembling the previous models. In this TD6 version of the tweeter, the foil itself has been upgraded to be able to handle even more power and higher dynamics.

Making a statement the Raidho TD6

TD MID- AND BASS DRIVERS

The imposing TD6 does make a huge statement of intent as a flagship speaker and the drivers are no exception to this. The TD stands for Tantalum Diamond and the driver membrane is a five-layer sandwich construction: Aluminium cone, Ceramic, Tantalum, Diamond and then Diamond on the back. There is 1.5 Carat of diamond on each drive unit, yet only 10 microns thick. With the Danish Technical Institute Raidho used highly specialized machines where they pump in argon gas and fire particles at the speed of light to fix the atoms to the membrane, creating the Tantalum and Diamond coating. Very impressive stuff! Raidho tell us that the TD layers reduce resonance and the breakup mode has been elevated to 20KHz.

The driver motor comprises of a very strong magnet (N52 Neodymium) with an unseen even magnet field, coupled with an underhung titanium voice coil. This is combined with a turbine shape…and the driver is exceptionally heavy.

In the crossover, the components are mostly from Mundorf top spec and are mounted directly on a massive PVC board. Hard and direct wiring is used, with integrated Nordost cables in the crossover itself. All internal wiring is done with Nordost Norse cables.

The huge Raidho TD6 comes in at 210,000€ in black or 230k in the wooden finish that we listened to.

A truly stunning speaker, they did not disappoint during listening. The stand out track was a live version of Kraftwerk’s ‘Radioactivity’. Electronic music showed of the speed of the drives and the sound even seemed to come from around and behind you when sat in the sweet spot in the GamuT chair.

The view from the GamuT chair

Of course, at over 200k the Raidho TD6 are only for the highly privileged few who will buy them,  and those lucky like us to hear them in a well set up system at a HiFi Show. But for me, the little X1t monitors were the real standout of this launch, and I can’t wait to get them into our own listening room to find out more about what they can do. Delivering amazing sound in a ‘money is no object’ flagship is one skill but doing it at a fraction of the cost and size is to my mind even cleverer.

Moon and Nordost

TECHNICAL SPECS

RAIDHO X1T SUPER MINI MONITOR

Size, mm. (BxHxD): 145 x 320 x 230

Weight, kg.: 8

Freq. response: 70 Hz – 50 KHz

Impedance: >6 ohm

Sensitivity: 85 dB 2.83 V/m

Crossover: 3.5 kHz

Enclosure: Vented design. Port in front panel

Drive units: 1 x sealed ribbon tweeter. 1 x 5,25” Ceramic and Tantalum driver

Finish: Black piano and White piano

Amplification: >50 W (Though we have seen excellent results with small tube amplifiers)

Price: EUR 5.800 (Pair)

RAIDHO X1.6 COMPACT SPEAKER

Size, mm. (BxHxD): 200 x 360 x 30

Weight, kg.: 12

Freq. response: 45 Hz – 50 KHz

Impedance: >6 ohm

Sensitivity: 87 dB 2.83 V/

Crossover: 3.5 kHz

Enclosure: Vented design. Port in the rear

Drive units: 1 x sealed ribbon tweeter. 1 x 6,5” Ceramic driver

Finish: Black piano and White pian

Amplification: >50 W (Though we have seen excellent results with small tube amplifiers)

Price: EUR 7.300 (Pair)

RAIDHO TD6 STATEMENT LOUDSPEAKER

Size, mm. (BxHxD): 250 x 1950 x 700 (250 x 2085 x 835 incl. feets)

Weight, kg.: 175

Freq. response: 25 Hz – 50 KHz -6 dB

Impedance: 8 ohm

Sensitivity: 87 dB 2.83 V/m

Crossover: 350 Hz and 3 kHz 2. order

Enclosure: Vented design. Six ports in the rear

Drive units: 1 x sealed ribbon tweeter. 2 x 5,25” Tantalum Diamond mid-range drivers.

6 x 8” Tantalum Diamond bass drivers

Finish: Black piano. All possible paint colors. Walnut burl veneer

Amplification: >100 W

Price: From EUR 210.000 (Pair)

Linette Smith

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