CES 2016

Raidho's Slim Floorstanding XT-2

Robert Deutsch  |  Jan 8, 2016

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
Submitted by spacehound on January 10, 2016 - 9:54pm

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
Submitted by jeremyquam on January 11, 2016 - 11:45am

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

Nellomilanese's picture
Submitted by Nellomilanese on January 11, 2016 - 4:24pm

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
Submitted by MMCO on January 17, 2016 - 7:08pm

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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