Audiophilepure

https://www.stereophile.com/content/kii-audio-seven-active-loudspeaker-system

I was surprised by how similarly the two speakers reproduced a solo voice or instrument. The ambience and soundstage cues are another matter. Consider the old chestnut Eliot Fisk Plays Bach and Scarlatti (SACD rip, Red Rose Music RRM 06). This is an intimate recording with negligible space around the instrument. With this album, there’s very little difference in the presentation of the Kiis and the KEFs. It is almost like listening to test tones, which also sounded much the same.But any recording with good spatial ambience revealed that the KEFs and Kiis are no more twins than Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. On “Tarrega’s Capricho árabe,” performed by Stefano Grondona on La Guitarra de Torres (CD rip, Divox CDX-29701), we hear everything from the touch of fingers on the strings, the strings themselves, and the resonant tones from the body of the instrument, all within a richly warm ambience. The SEVENs directed more attention to the early items on that list—the close-in, local things—while the KEFs made a stronger case for the ambience.It comes down to how they interact with the room. With the SEVENs nearly against the front wall, listening from a seat fairly close to the speakers, the cardioid radiation minimizes the excitation of room modes and delivers a finely detailed soundstage defined by the width of the speaker pair. The KEFs sound best a few feet from the walls and from a listening position farther from the speakers than they are from each other. Under those conditions, the soundstage conjured is consistently wider than the speaker span. While their imaging is marginally less incisive than the SEVENs’, they are somewhat better at separating the music from the speakers. Tough choice.

It’s nearly impossible to fault the Raidho X2.6 floor-standing speakers. Their designers set out to create a perfectly neutral and accurate speaker, and they achieved that goal. They’re so neutral that they make most of the speakers I’ve heard before sound colored. They take accuracy to another level. And therein lies a quandary.

I’m a fan of neutral speakers, and I’ve said so on many occasions. The X2.6’s accuracy gives rock and heavy music an addictive quality. They capture the feel of every band’s performance style and their recording aesthetic in a way I haven’t heard before. I could listen to Pantera and The Beatles, and everyone in between, all day and twice on Sunday.

But my main interest is classical. As I’ve also said on many occasions, there is a huge gap between the best and the worst orchestral recordings. The X2.6s are almost too good here. They demand the best fidelity and balance from orchestral tracks. Anything short of reference quality sounds fine until you hit the volume barrier. Then, it’s less enjoyable. This is a small thing that I don’t see as a flaw, but as something that comes with audio gear that is so meticulously precise. And I can’t say it better than that. The X2.6 floor-standing speakers are incredibly good at their job, and Raidho is to be highly commended. If you want to rock out at arena volume levels, or you want to build a library of classical reference recordings, there are none better in my experience.