Dave's visit to the Raidho speaker production facility
I
was not really quite sure what to expect as I arrived at Aalborg
airport in Denmark on the 17 Feb 2010. The snow had settled yet
the roads did not seem to bother anyone like it might in the UK.
I was invited by Lars Kristensen over 2 years ago to see the Raidho
production facility and now was that moment I could fit it in
with the Lar's very busy schedule.
I
have always been an admirer of the speaker range which I am proud
to sell on this website and was intrigued to see exactly what
it takes to make a reference grade speaker.
It
is common knowledge that Raidho make their ribbon speakers, crossovers
and drivers in house but I was not prepared to see the care and
detail they go to in the creation of the speakers.
Lars
introduced the backroom people and then to Michael Borrenson who
is the designer who took me through the assembly procedure.
Each
speaker is built by one individual who will assemble the ribbon
and the drive units from scratch. The ribbon
is robust yet it has the thinnest of membranes. An engineer will
assemble a number of units at any one time then fit them into
the cabinet, which includes the crossover.
The
ribbon is carefully assembled by hand
Drivers cone assemblies
20 neodymium magnets are fitted to the C series
motor drive
Rear view of motor section
Motor drive fitted to the aluminium front plate
Crossovers
The
finished articles
After
watching the assembly process it was time to retire to the Raidho
"Temple", the listening room. Purpose built it housed
the complete range, including prototypes of the C Centric which
should be available next year. What catches your eye, and you
would have to be totally blind to miss them, are the magnificent
C4.0 towering in piano black, the recommended colour. They produced
wonderful music. They had the Raidho signature of clear accurate
performance without imposing themselves on you. They are giants,
and yet they are but serene in every thing they do. A true superb
high class high end performer and must rate as one of the World's
greatest speaker systems.
Lars
with the C4.0
Panoramic
of the demo room using a Nokia mobile, but still not bad.