High End 2014: Raidho’s diamonds

By Dr. Panagiotis Karavitis

Raidho of Denmark brought a series of speakers but we managed to hear only the two bigger ones as the smaller and highly anticipated X-1 were only on static display. The D-3 was presented here in Munich last year; new this time was D-5, a speaker which is very similar in size (thus very tall) to the C-4.1, but gets equipped with the D-series driver, where d=”diamond”, for both mids and bass. All these diamonds do not come cheap and at $210,000 per pair, this is Raidho’s most expensive speaker to date.

It is also the most impressive. Driven by a mix of electronics from Constellation Audio (Virgo pre and Centaur monos), dCS (Puccini player and U-Clock) and wired together with Ansuz Cables, the big Raidho gave a breathtaking performance with some of the fastest transient responses, clarity and a sense of air between instruments that precious few can match.

The D-3 was very similar, except for the overall low-end extension and the capability of loading the entire room as the D-5 did. Nagra CD and HD-DAC, with Jeff Rowland Continuum integrated amp here, a proof that are not required huge power amps in order to get excellent results out the D series.

As we were listening to REM’s “Mad World” through the mighty D-5, I heard the guy in front of me saying “I feel like crying”. Touching performance to say the least. Or perhaps he was crying because he cannot afford ‘em? Dunno! Either way, incredible stuff.