Original & offshoot. It's no secret that today Raidho are part of the Dantax Radio umbrella, or that original founders Michael Børresen and Lars Kristensen left to form what since has become Audio Group Denmark, an umbrella organization for Aavik, Ansuz, Axxess and Børresen. So it's no surprise that Børresen speakers bear a resemblance to Michael's earlier Raidho work. While ingredients and optics suggest common design DNA, listening to current Raidhos reveals a different aural aesthetic. Originally at GamuT presently Gryphon, Benno Baun Meldgaard worked as Raidho's next chief engineer. He oversaw a wholesale retuning of Raidho and Scansonic HD speakers. Hence earlier reviews of 1st-gen Raidho models don't represent today's 2nd-gen versions even if those lack official MkII suffices. The titanium-to-tantalum transition slyly moved from T to t, here XT2 to X2t. Because of this behind-the-scenes evolution, it's key to note the change and reset our odometer. A different reset pertains to perception and divergent market realities. Here's a Hong Kong reviewer's perspective on their hifi sales: "I like Audio Note UK and Accuphase which have very large sales numbers here compared to the US. Peter Qvortrup of AN UK notes that the North American market accounts for only 5% of his sales. In Hong Kong one store sold 200 of his M6 preamps which go for $24-50K US. That's just one preamp model out of eight; at one dealer. I'm pretty sure that any dealer would like those numbers. The Meishu Tonmeister integrated at around $12-25K also sold 200 units at that same dealer. The Hong Kong hifi show is large with top-end brands and their top-end products on display. Most people buy this stuff in cash, too. I think people would get a very different impression of what the big names and big sellers are if they were in Asia compared to what they see as big names in the US and Canada."
If you wondered where some of Raidho's extreme models sell, think China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia and Japan. Those are big markets with huge hifi appetites. Some firms focus on just filling their demands. Others split catalogues into tiered lines to service the ultra high-end and offer smaller less opulent and costly product for more modest appetites. Raidho's catalogue with Scansonic below make Dantax into something of an all-service provider. Today's X2t aims at top sonic ambitions tempered by demands for compact size and shopping the low five not six digits. The similarly sized 6½" not 5¼" driver TD2.2 of Raidho's diamond line [see above] demands £43.5K/pr in the UK. The equivalent Scansonic is €3.5K/pr. Divide and conquer. Or, leave the cannoli, bring the scatter gun. That recalls the tantalum layer's creation by particle bombardment.
It's very different from the chemical reaction of an electrolytic swab brushing thin silver onto copper. That you could do at home. The Raidho process requires subcontracting with a high-tech government lab. Here's it's interesting how Denmark established this laboratory precisely to collaborate with local businesses. It tells us something about the country's culture. It supports internal progress and success. On my last visit to Aalborg, I was told that Danish university graduates are guaranteed a job. Study hard, get a degree, we'll put you to work. I find it hard not to imagine that spirit being part of today's Raidho speaker. How could it not? It's in the people who made it. That's one more aspect of the X2t's personal appeal. And true, I was born in Flensburg. It's right on the German/Danish border. Feeling a certain cultural kinship seems in my bones.
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40Hz vs 70Hz is nearly an octave apart. It's what differentiates the published -3dB reach of X2t and smaller X1t. It's because below 130Hz, the X2t's two 5¼" drivers sum to an equivalent 7.4" woofer. That's bigger than the flagship TD1.2 monitor's 6½". While for most music the 20-40Hz octave isn't significant—and to begin with, a -3dB figure is no brick wall so audibility extends beyond—the octave above it still very much is. It's why despite being a petite floorstander barely tickling the bottom octave, many users will experience the X2t as complete; what audiophiles call full range. By the same math, the X1t without sub is incomplete. To compensate acoustically it now wants extra boundary gain and/or a smaller room; or nearfield positioning.
If you read German or use Google translator, HifiStatement have a lengthy factory tour which includes the above photo linking their report. It shows Raidho's TD6 flagship bracketing the new squared-out 6" X-range monitor, white X1t against the wall. Knowing that the X2t duplicates the monitors' height on their stands shows how smaller woofers in multi parallel can quickly big up speakers to become very tall. Primary electronic in this photo are by GamuT. For an accelerated factory tour video, there's also this on YouTube.
When I queried my Dantax contact on GamuT, I learnt that maintaining three different speaker portfolios under one umbrella had become too much, hence GamuT production stopped. There still are discussions on whether to bring back their celebrated electronics. Of course Gato Audio, Pass Labs and Reimyo too have amplifiers where a single high-power Mosfet handles each phase of a class A or AB push/pull output. That might make a return of GamuT's own less urgent?
