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Gamut, Raidho & Magnepan in The Absolute Sound’s Buyer’s Guide to Loudspeakers 2016

The Absolute Sound (TAS) has just published its brand new and biggest ever Buyer’s Guide to Loudspeakers. The 2016 edition covers all types of speakers, from floorstanders, stand-mounts and desktops to planars and horns, across a range of price brackets.

The magazine’s review team has mulled over the world’s top models and picked out a select few to provide audiophiles with an easy-to-navigate PDF guide, available as a free download.

The guide includes 28 full reviews from TAS plus plenty of new content, such as:

  • ‘top picks’: the best loudspeakers in four categories
  • ‘on the horizon’: the hottest upcoming speakers
  • ‘six secrets of speaker placement’: insider advice from Robert Harley
  • ‘sneak preview’: the latest speakers about to be reviewed in TAS.
Gamut RS3i loudspeaker - in ruby finish
Gamut RS3i loudspeaker – in ruby finish

Among the full reviews is Gamut’s RS3i stand-mount, which comes “enthusiastically recommended”, offering “all the advantages of a small stand-mounted speaker – those of illuminating imaging and wide-open soundstaging – combined with stunning dynamic presence. Capable of sounding much bigger than it looks, it is a honey of a speaker and should be on anyone’s short list for a small-to-medium-sized room application.”

Raidho D-1.1 loudspeaker in walnut
Raidho D-1.1 loudspeaker in walnut

Raidho’s D1, meanwhile, is singled out as a ‘top pick’. “If Raidho’s C1 is a genuinely great loudspeaker (and it most certainly is), the company’s D1 is an even greater one, thanks to its ultra-expensive diamond-diaphragm mid/woofer, which audibly improves overall tone color while also smoothing (thanks to the diamond driver’s much-higher-in-frequency breakup modes) the transition to Raidho’s incomparable, single-ended, quasi-ribbon tweeter.”

Magnepan 20.7 planar magnetic loudspeaker
Magnepan 20.7 planar magnetic loudspeaker

Moving onto floorstanders, Magnepan scores three ‘top picks’. The first goes to the “shockingly realistic” MG .7, which also features in a full review. The second belongs to the MG 1.7i , singled out as the “best affordable loudspeaker”, while the MG 20.7 earns the third: “These Maggies’ magical ability to transport listeners to a different space and time 
and to there realistically recreate (with lifelike scope and size) the sound of acoustic instruments and the venue they were recorded in is extraordinary.”

Visit www.theabsolutesound.com/buyers_guides/32/ to download your free copy.
tas-buyers-guide-to-loudspeakers-2016-cover
To audition a pair of Gamuts, Raidhos or Maggies, contact the relevant UK distributor for details of your nearest dealer.