Raidho's Slim Floorstanding XT-2

Moderately Priced Speakers. That's my assignment for this year's CES show report—as well as moderately priced turntables and other phono equipment—Moderate being defined this time as priced from $4000/pair to $18,000/pair. Personally, I have trouble considering $18,000 speakers as being moderately priced, but this designation should not be viewed as anything but a convenient way of subdividing the task of reporting, so that Herb Reichert, reporting on "Low-Priced (defined as under $4000/pair), Jason Victor Serinus, writing about "High-Priced" speakers (above $18,000/pair), and myself have about the same amount of work to do. By the standards of ordinary people, and even most audiophiles, a speaker that costs as much as a Honda Civic cannot be considered "Moderately Priced."

Right at the top of this range is the $18,000/pair Raidho XT-2, an extremely slim floorstander that uses the same tweeter as the rest of the Raidho range and two 4" cone drivers, in a two-and-a-half way configuration. The electronics at the show were from Denmark—as are the Raidho speakers—the C-300 preamp at $36,000 and the P-300 power amp at $48,000. The system had a clean, lively sound, with bass that was hard to credit to 4" drivers.

COMMENTS
spacehound's picture

You mean people who are NOT complete mugs happy to pay $18,000 for two little speakers so they can boast to their equally crazy friends, I assume?

Don't get me started on the overall price but how many concert tickets can you buy for $102,000?

jeremyquam's picture

True but how many Jimi Hendrix tickets can you get for 100k

Nellomilanese's picture

I'm trying to figure out who would pay 18k for a slim speaker w two 4" drivers? I mean these things won't have any "real bass" (40hz and down)...they problably take like 150w tops so they can't fill a big livingroom (which some1 with $ 18k to spend on speakers alone would have for sure!).
Maybe i'm missing something here....

MMCO's picture

I am not totally surprised by some of these comments because these are expensive. However, I wonder if anyone who has remarked actually heard these speakers. Raidho produces some of the finest sounding speakers in the world. I first heard the Raidho D1 at the RMAF in 2014. They are a small 2 way speaker and they list for $25k with stands. Sounds absurd I know but I tried to find a speaker for the last year and a half that sounded so good. I ultimately ordered the new D1.1 that was just released at CES. Are they small? Yes, but they have incredible range that must be heard. I have a modest size room, 14 x 22, however I expect these to sound amazing. At RMAF they were playing in a room that was easily twice that size and blew me away. They were also connected to two 250 amp mono blocks. In summary, I recommend anyone listen to Raidho before they make assumptions.

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