Vivid Giya G2 Loudspeaker

CES 2010

By Larry Greenhill • Posted: Jan 12, 2010

John Atkinson introduced me to English engineer Laurence Dickie, who was sharing our ride up the elevators to the 34th floor of the Venetian Hotel. Mr. Dickie is a well-known loudspeaker designer, responsible for the original B&W 800 and B&W Nautilus loudspeaker designs, and as well as the cute little Blue Room Minipods, and is now creating new products for South African company Vivid from his design studio in Brighton, England. "Dick," as he is known to his friends, designed the G1 flagship for Vivid, which retails now for $65,000/pair and was being demonstrated in the Convergence Audio suite with, among other things, the piano recordings John Atkinson made and wrote about in the February issue’s “As We See It.” Laurence is shown here with the smaller G2, which was being demmed in the Halcro room and so impressed Erick Lichte.

Compared to the flagship G1, the Vivid G2 is smaller, and costs slightly less at a suggested retail of $55,000/pair. A 5-driver, 4-way system, the G2 is 80% of the height of the G1 at 5' and half the internal volume of the bigger speaker. The cabinet features the same exponentially tapered-tube absorber for its two C175 short-coil, long-gap bass drivers and has multi-component automotive finish. The G2's sensitivity is specified as 88dB/2.83V.1m and the frequency range is specified at 29Hz to 33kHz.

The G2's sound was highly detailed and the bass was strong. Its more comfortable dimensions compared with the G1 will make it easier to insert into the decor of apartments in Manhattan and Hong Kong—it will definitely be favored by reviewers who look kindly on smaller loudspeakers that are easier to move around and adjust!

Comments

Submitted by bhagwan on January 13, 2010 - 10:51am.

Think out of the box;Start a project from ground up;In House Drivers - Custom Enclosure - Funky Paint Finish etc. that is Vivid. Hence the name;Nothing in common with the porn major - vivid.These are great speakers - mostly get paired with Luxman - Japan. Halcro seems to be a better match.It is a 'fun' looking speaker with a 'serious' sound. Needs to be listened to - carefully - to be appreciated.55K may look - seem - like a lot of money, but @ 30 to 35 K this speaker would be a 'winner'Right size [proportion] & have a 'high waf' [wife acceptance factory] in a contemporary home. This speaker should be played with Bertram Cables - Denmark - my humble suggestion...

Submitted by Ola on January 13, 2010 - 12:08pm.

Actually, the physical design of the Blue Room minipods was not by Laurence Dickie but by Simon Ghahary. I'm suer Dickie had a lot to do with the technical aspecs of them though, as Ghahary was only 16 (!) at the time if I recall. Simon was then A&R for Blue Room Recordings as well, but Blue Room is no more as label or speaker company. The minipods are now produced by Scandyna.

Submitted by Bill on January 17, 2010 - 6:40pm.

Still waiting to see a review of the Vivid B-1s in Stereophile…

Submitted by TheProf on February 24, 2010 - 1:05pm.

Ola is right - Simon Ghahary did come up with the design of the minipod - but was out of his head most of the time I knew him. Dic (not Dick) engineered, round about the same time as he worked on the original Nautilus Loudspeaker, which is the Daddy of the Vivid but in a different shape. Robert Trunz who commissioned Nautilus reckons its even better. I only heard Nautilus which was phenomenal at the time, or any time. Nautilus caused much jealousy and there was a lot of crap talked about it - mainly from people who never heard it. B&W (in MHO) tried to make a 'low end' series using conventional units, but keeping the tubed tweeter, calling it 'Nautilus 800'. It isn't the same thing, and whilst its good, it isn't the same as the Nautilus proper. The Vivid is the only contemporary system that retains the originators qualities - or you could get a pair of Quads!