Kaiser Kawero or Raidho D3 or Vivid Giya G2?

Thanks Mike,

I can certainly picture myself doing the same and just enjoying the music 'floating' out of the Raidho's. BTW do you think it would be worth auditioning the YG's Hailey with the others? I haven't had a chance to hear them just curious if it engages the listener into music like Raidho's?


Alvin
 
The YG's are excellent. I would definitely give them a listen.

If you do go with Raidho's - be prepared for a real up and down break in for the first 1000 hours....or at least the first 500. I found playing lots of vinyl helped loosen up the cones a little more and therefore expedited break in.

Expect to go from OMG to WTF? during break in.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hi Mike,

My list of speakers are growing day by day and there's no pattern to what I'm after now but eventually will get there?Hopefully:rolleyes:

I remember you did say something about trying out high efficiency speakers as well...so when I think of High efficiency Horn speakers comes to mind. Any experience with them and what about the Tune Audio especially Animas...they claim "horn speakers that doesn't sound like horn"....also the new Voltic? Did you consider any of these before finalising on Spatial Audio for your next system?


Alvin
 
Audiocrazy said:
Thanks Mike,

I can certainly picture myself doing the same and just enjoying the music 'floating' out of the Raidho's. BTW do you think it would be worth auditioning the YG's Hailey with the others? I haven't had a chance to hear them just curious if it engages the listener into music like Raidho's?


Alvin
Click to expand...

Hey, there's a speaker I heard, and was very impressed! The YG Hailey's are excellent, top to bottom. Great, controlled bass, and not as demanding of the amps as the previous YG models.

It'd be a good listening exercise, since the YG is a sealed box speaker, while most of the others (all?) are ported designs. There are significant differences in bass characteristic between the two designs, and listening would help you find which one you prefer !


alexandre
 
Hi Alex..

Thanks for the information and yes YGs are on my shortlist for auditions....

Alvin
 
Hi Mike,

Sorry it is Volti.....my mistake........ I'm little surprised that no one suggested Magico's as an alternate option. Mike what are your thoughts on the Q series or even the latest S series....


Alvin
 
Hi Alvin - I owned the Magico S5's and sold them after a few months. Although I greatly appreciate the technology in the speaker, at the end of the day, in my room, with my gear, it just wasn't my cup of tea. They did a lot of things right - except emotionally engage me in the music. They demo amazingly well though.

I have heard all of the S and Q series speakers. The Q series speakers, to me, try to perfect audiophile sound rather than reproduce music.

My Wilson Alexia's should be my destination speakers. With any of the sweet tube amps I have, they are outstanding - and leave me scratching my head every time - asking, "again, why am I selling these?" I guess I just want to try the Spatial's and the open baffle/point source design philosophy and failing that, return to the Sonus Faber Stradivari's which is a speaker I should never have sold....a speaker with more soul than any other I've ever heard.

Volti's and Tannoy's are also very high on my list. I guess, I just like to try different gear. Just because I sell something doesn't always mean I don't really really like it. I know a lot of people can't understand that. They think if you like something, you should keep it forever. That works for love, but not gear. I never get emotionally attached to gear - I get attached to the experience of different gear. Some people trade cars every few months because they love the experiences that each and every different car brings. I tend to think of gear that way. Although I admit to getting frustrated sometimes, I do enjoy the journey.
 
Mike said:
Hi Alvin - I owned the Magico S5's and sold them after a few months. Although I greatly appreciate the technology in the speaker, at the end of the day, in my room, with my gear, it just wasn't my cup of tea. They did a lot of things right - except emotionally engage me in the music. They demo amazingly well though.

I have heard all of the S and Q series speakers. The Q series speakers, to me, try to perfect audiophile sound rather than reproduce music.

My Wilson Alexia's should be my destination speakers. With any of the sweet tube amps I have, they are outstanding - and leave me scratching my head every time - asking, "again, why am I selling these?" I guess I just want to try the Spatial's and the open baffle/point source design philosophy and failing that, return to the Sonus Faber Stradivari's which is a speaker I should never have sold....a speaker with more soul than any other I've ever heard.

Volti's and Tannoy's are also very high on my list. I guess, I just like to try different gear. Just because I sell something doesn't always mean I don't really really like it. I know a lot of people can't understand that. They think if you like something, you should keep it forever. That works for love, but not gear. I never get emotionally attached to gear - I get attached to the experience of different gear. Some people trade cars every few months because they love the experiences that each and every different car brings. I tend to think of gear that way. Although I admit to getting frustrated sometimes, I do enjoy the journey.
Click to expand...

Well said Mike.....I can't wait you get here :woot: I have a strange feeling that this Tannoy's going to be here for a looooong time :D ( For the record the longest one was 13 months in my room. Shortest was 50 days LOL )
 
Hi Mike,

Excellent write-up and really appreciate your honest feedback and experiences with different systems. I guess I have to take my own journey and discover things as I progress further and deeper into this hobby.

I'll be gladly waiting for your impressions on the Spatials once it replaces your beautiful Alexia's.... In the meantime I will continue doing my own research and see where I end up.. at the moment everything is pointing towards Raidho's!:D
 
The comparison of a reference speaker like Zellaton to pleasing Sonus Faber Italian furniture is, in my humble opinion, way off the mark :) These are completely different speakers and share no resemblance whatsoever. Zellaton got best of show at Munich from TAS this year (both Harley and Valin who preferred over Raidho, Magico, YG, Wilson etc…), and selected Zellaton as most coveted speaker etc... This is the only speaker in 25 years that have equaled, and in many ways surpassed my Quad 57's. They play louder and more coherently than any speaker I ever heard. In fact, as you turn up the volume they have zero compression - just pure musicality and control. Alvin, if you listen to Zellaton I'm afraid everything else will be unlistenable. They are a true music lover's speaker.
 
As of everything audio, it all comes to opinion.......


Mike said:
The YG's are excellent. I would definitely give them a listen.

If you do go with Raidho's - be prepared for a real up and down break in for the first 1000 hours....or at least the first 500. I found playing lots of vinyl helped loosen up the cones a little more and therefore expedited break in.

Expect to go from OMG to WTF? during break in.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Mike, you do that to me on a regular basis :D



BlueMcIntosh said:
Well said Mike.....I can't wait you get here :woot: I have a strange feeling that this Tannoy's going to be here for a looooong time :D ( For the record the longest one was 13 months in my room. Shortest was 50 days LOL )
Click to expand...


Joe has that so beat it'd make it dizzy :woot:



Audiocrazy said:
Hi Mike,

Excellent write-up and really appreciate your honest feedback and experiences with different systems. I guess I have to take my own journey and discover things as I progress further and deeper into this hobby.

I'll be gladly waiting for your impressions on the Spatials once it replaces your beautiful Alexia's.... In the meantime I will continue doing my own research and see where I end up.. at the moment everything is pointing towards Raidho's!:D
Click to expand...


When you stop listening to your system & you have an emotional bonding & passion for music, you know something is amiss, the hard part is working out how to fix it. Sometimes it is just don't play music for a night, others it takes a new chord/interconnect/tube/amp/speaker etc. as your preferences change. I once jumped from one system to the next regularly, now I have components that at this stage I have no intention of replacing. Hell, I've head the same curtains for 18 months now.....
 
Kev

That is what I was thinking too. Harley, Valin, Srajen and others jump on every new boat that comes along and do so for a reason. That reason is not always about the sound. There are very few of them I pay attention to and those are the ones whose opinions and tastes stay the course over time. If only someone kept score of how many times the next "great thing" came along to the "usual suspects."
 
elegy said:
(both Harley and Valin who preferred over Raidho, Magico, YG, Wilson etc…), and selected Zellaton as most coveted speaker etc...
Click to expand...

This week at least! :)

I like that the Zellatons have a open baffle midrange. But to me, they are just "ok" and they do have SPL limitations. I distinctly remember the rep telling me this and believe I read something about the pair in Munich having issues.

As for Sonus Faber furniture.....I will admit that many of their models are that....but a great speaker like the Strads will always be a great speaker.

Personal taste I guess. I would rather buy the Strads on Audiogon for $22,000 and pocket the $78,000 difference.
 
Amen to that Mike. Following that group will make you poor in a hurry. There is a reason some speaker manufacturer's have been around for decades and others come and go when the publicity from there ad revenue runs out. No matter what the reviewers think, the customers make the final decision. Wait a year and look on Agon for the "speaker of the month" and see how many you see and the price they are selling for as opposed to those from the established companies.
 
Hi El,

Thanks for your insight into the Zellation's... I guess in show conditions there are lots of factors that may hinder the performance of the loudspeakers including what they are paired with, room specifications which all play a part in good listening experience but most of the time people don't get to experience good sound due to these factors.

Just curious if their lower end models possess the same quality interms of sound signature and dispersion characteristics..... Also have you had a chance to hear them at a dealer or in a proper setting as opposed to show demos?

If I come across Zellations I will definitely hear them and see what they are capable of.....



Alvin
 
Does anyone have experience with Voxatix loudspeaker from Germany? Looks interesting wonder if they are able to capture audience with classical and jazz music.


Alvin
 
I agree about "flavor of the month" and judging by all the Wilson's on Audiogon as well as others, it's clear to me that the game is rigged, but in favor of some of the mainstream high-end brands. Wilson, Magico and Raidho for instance come out with a new speaker so often - and reinventing the wheel every year. This clearly benefits the merry-go-round disease that is endemic in high end audio but sadly supports the symbiotic relationship of manuf/reviewer/magazine/dealer etc… This is why you see people dumping their discontinued (or current) Wilson's and Magico's on Audiogon the second they are replaced with the latest and greatest, and one of the reasons (besides incredible musicality) why I like Zellaton and other brands as well as they operate outside of all that (which makes it even more shocking that they got best of show in CES and Munich) - and in terms of longevity, Zellaton has been around since the 1930's - way before Dave Wilson and Alon Wolf were wearing diapers :)

You read right - Zellaton patented its driver in the early 30's:


Z E L L A T O N - Zellaton - The Legendary Speaker
 
ive never owned , or tried to own any of the speakers talked about here in this thread. ive listened to several of them and have heard many many others not in this thread.
im always looking for efficient speakers now and the others i could honestly care less about anymore. no matter how good the listening session was. that is except for raidhos. i just love the sound that damn ribbon tweeter makes, and i cant get enough of them and the fact that i could never run any of them on 300b's is heartbreaking to me, but as far as the others ive heard i can live without most all of them even if i really liked them, none to me matches the things that the raidho does so well. and whatever it is that raidho does i just seem to love it.
 
BTW, my second choice behind the Zellatons would be the Kaiser Kaweros. But the Kaweros are more than 60K and the Zellaton Grands are much less. All of the Zellatons have the same quality no matter which model you buy. The drivers in all of the speakers have the same quality build requirements. For larger rooms, go with the larger ZEllatons. In my 16x24 foot room the Emotions do a wonderful job. I should be able to get a great sound from the Grands, but I think the References might be a little too large for me. The Grands should have more bass, but the Emotions have great bass now.

Just keep watch on the audio show reviews, Zellaton will be tops in every show. Or just spend an hour or two at a local dealer, if you have a very discriminating ear like I do, or RH and JV of TAS does, you will agree, Zellatons are clearly the best.
 
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