At this juncture fairaudio's review of the only 6½" model in the X range hit. That's the X1.6 whose bigger membrane forgoes the tantalum treatment, whose cab goes classic rectilinear not airfoil. "Though I feel hard pressed to say so, for sheer overwhelming detail density with minimal stress, even the beryllium tweeters in Magico's €12K/pr A1 still have something to learn from Raidho's planarmagnetic version… This rare quality expresses itself so casual and nonchalant that the actually embedded analytical prowess only comes clean when we deliberately inspect it. In this price class I must then call it resolution sans pareil." Another paragraph calls it "perfected inconspicuousness" then notices "minimal tonal restraint in the presence region to promote a subtle rounding for decidedly smooth readings a touch on the full corporeal side"…then qualifies the result as "good-natured behavior which in no way opposes excellent transparency". In car terms the €7.3K X1.6 is "a compact with sedan ambitions". Once again a colleague from this trusted German site describes a high-end Dantax speaker in terms I instantly recognized as perfect overlay on my own prior Raidho takes. Easeful high resolution imbued with subtle warmth really must be the firm's surprisingly consistent house tuning. How else to explain so much agreement between experienced listeners? Take it to the bank is the only reasonable answer. Debit my account could be another.

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"I called DHL Freight again since I'd been told that this shipment was on its way to Ireland already. Unfortunately it missed last week's linehaul connection on their weekly departure each Friday. I'm now told it's currently being loaded onto the export truck leaving Denmark. They got a new ERP system last month which still has lots of issues." That was Raidho's Gitte Pagh Schou following up on our 'lost' shipment. Three days later, "shipment missed linehaul again. DHL will now get it on a linehaul truck leaving for Eindhoven today". A few hours later, "believe it or not, the truck that left today still doesn't have it onboard. They will now load it onto a truck that goes directly to Dublin tomorrow. Its route is set from Esbjerg/Denmark to sail to Immingham, drive through the UK to Liverpool, then take the Dublin ferry where it should arrive Friday at the latest. They may not be able to truck it to you until the following Monday." While Gitte was very apologetic for the resultant 3-week turnaround—not her fault in the first place—I reminded us both that relative to events in the Ukraine, none of it was any cause for upset. Six days after finally departing Denmark by boat, the freight arrived in Dublin. 12 hours later so 21:00, it was out for delivery to presumably ring my bell the following day. It didn't.

But the day after the following day, a white van without lift gate, fork lift or pallet jack pulled up. Soon after I had proof of life.

As requested, the finish was their burl maple which slotted into our décor far better than gloss black. The original photos hadn't shown the elongated oval detailing which my samples flew on their lower front baffles. It gave what otherwise is a flat narrow black expanse extra visual pop. The turbine exhausts aka rear ports conjured up racy machinery. The isolation footers were easily height adjustable after removing their top caps. X2t. In the crib. For that I want no acoustic treatments which, to be effective, must take up considerable wall or ceiling surface; then real cubic volume for the bass. Instead I exploit active adjustable cardioid bass. Think Kii III just for the bottom 2½ octaves via asymmetrical 'super' dipole radiation. I do it purely acoustically without DSP so zero latency. But the win using dual 15-inchers is the same kiick, just lower: no sidewall reflections, reduced front-wall/corner gain, far less room boom and overhang so much higher timing precision. With my usual 80Hz/4th-order Linkwitz-Riley analog crossover called Gradient Box inserting mirror-imaged hi/lo passes prior to speaker and sub amps, I have an IR-triggered bypass. I can instantly compare full-range speaker to blended speaker/sub mode from the seat.

Once I'd adjusted the sub's level to the X2t's sensitivity rating, I made that comparison. Without the benefits of strategic cancellations across deleterious bass reflections, my ~40/70Hz room modes reared their peaky heads. That made the unfiltered Raidho unexpectedly hung but also non-linear and lumpy across my room's inherent trouble spots. Though rear ports exaggerate this, I couldn't yet blame the X2t. They were virgin. Also, I know my room. That's what it does. So in first filtered mode I had no big issues. In solo mode I had rather too much room gain. But then I no longer chance that designers magically tune their speakers to avoid my room's trigger frequencies. Active directional bass is simply superior. To kiick off my X2t trip, I started where I was when the Raidho took up: Albedo Audio's 5¼" two-way Accuton transmission-line towers of very comparable size.

Changing naught but sub volume to match new speaker sensitivity, the difference in tonality was instant. The older ceramic Italians were the far cooler texturally thinner and flatter cucumbers. The still harder more rigid Raidho drivers exhibited demonstrably more sweetness, suppleness and textural largesse. They were perfectly happy in DAC-direct mode so Sonnet Pasithea to Kinki EX-B7 monos via Gradient Box filter. The Aptica really lusted after the upstairs Vinnie Rossi L2 Signature DHT preamp with its super-bandwidth grounded grid circuit injecting some valvular laissez-faire. Within our four walls, past met present, old Accuton latest Raidho tech. Time hadn't frozen. Much progress had been made in the interim. It relegated my Albedo beauts to has-beens. One adventurous reader with warmer electronics is welcome to them, no charge but pickup mandatory given zero surviving packaging after one too many house moves.