Raidho D1/C1.1 vs Dynaudio C1 vs Magico Q1

Peterayer,
I have heard nothing but good things about Evolution Acoustics speakers. My only problem with auditioning them is that without the benefit of a direct comparison with a Raidho or a Magico, I would always wonder if I am missing out on something :)

Goose,
It is rather frustrating that inspite of all the affluence in and around Seattle, there is a dearth of dealers who can provide a convincing audition experience.

Apdoc2004 if you can afford these speakers you sure can afford a plane trip to LA in CA rent a car and hunt down all those products. If not for goodness sakes go to CES or similar audio show. I would never plot down this kind of money by word of mouth and not hearing them for myself.

If you want coherent sound, dynamics and bass extension...dyns are speakers for you no doubt...its beyond sanity to cost tripple than dyns and have no sufficient bass(raidhos)...so that means you are very limited on music selection...which is very bad in my opinion...p.s. Kiwi...as a dyn owner i can only upgrade to another dyns not magico or raidho becuz i just like dyn presentation better...dyns-documentary movie....magico and raidho- special effects(wow factor) movie...regards...

I have the Dyn C1's driven by an Octave V110 tube integrated with original Nordost Frey. I heard the Raidho's at my dealer. He was running them off a little Naim Uniti with Nordost Tyr2 cables. Then we went to one of his customers that had his Raidho D3's for demo. They were being driven by a Burmester 911 with all Valhalla cables (he traded in his Dyn Sapphires). That system just ruined me. I looked every way I could to upgrade to the D1 for myself but just couldn't find the $$$$$. Anyhow back to your question. I would think the Heimdall's would be just fine but as with any of these systems the more you move up in the cable line the better it sounds. That being said you do have the point of diminishing returns just like the speakers in question. The Nordost Series2 is a very different cable. They retain the same characteristics of the original lineup but add a more liquid sound and do better in the lows. I had the Norse Series2 demo case for about 2 months and as much as I wanted to upgrade my speaker cables I ended up only upgrading my original Frey IC to the Tyr2. So yes if want to get the most out of the speaker the Valhalla would be the way to go but at 6X the price you will probably only get 15 - 20% better. Also in my opinion the Raidho D1 is about 20% better than my C1 signatures. Last my dealer told me that the 'D' series is like taking the speaker grills off when comparing to the C1.1's. And did you catch this??
http://app.audiogon.com/listings/full-range-raidho-d1-diamond-dedicated-stands-walnut-2013-07-26-speakers-07931

I just auditioned the Raidho C1.1 for about an hour at a local dealer. It was paired with Simaudio Evolution integrated with a MAC supplying music through a Synergistic Research DAC. Cabling was all Synergistic Research and the room was heavily treated with an assortment of bass traps and resonators. The room was about 20x15. Enough of the silly details.

I would characterize the sound of the C1.1 as very neutral. I didn't detect any frequency bias. We played a variety of female vocals, strings, and sax. This speaker did a wonderful job of reproducing these instruments in a very realistic manner. It captured the nuance and texture very well. Needless to say the resolution was outstanding. However, the sound was not fatiguing at all. As expected, the bass with these monitors was not that good. I think my SF Auditors had better deeper bass. Overall, these are very good speakers if you listen to mainly music that has a slower pace. When pushed with fasted paced music with plenty of rapidly changing dynamics I felt like the C1.1 struggled a bit. That being said I only auditioned for 1 hour. I need to go back and spend more time listening.

I also wanted to comment about the stands. They do look very cool. But they are also not very stiff. In fact, I could easily make them flex with just the force of one finger. Now I doubt the stands will break but I thought it odd that they were not stiffer. The dealer said the flex was intentional to deal with vibrations. Regardless I didn't like it, especially since the speakers just sit atop of stands. My Auditors actually are screwed into the stands giving me some piece of mind, even if its just perceived.