RMAF 2010

Products making their debut at the 2010 RMAF from Philip O’Hanlon’s On a Higher Note: The interesting LaSource SACD player/preamp/DAC from Audioaero ($44,000), Vivid G2 Giya loudspeaker ($50,000/pair), and Brinkmann 9.6 tonearm ($4000), Brinkmann Pi cartridge ($2700), and Brinkmann Edison tube phono stage ($12,900).

When I walked into the room, I thought something looked odd about the speakers. The Vivid G1 Giyas were smaller than I remembered from when John Atkinson and I replaced their drive units during a visit to Wes Phillips’ home. Perhaps the large room at RMAF was playing tricks with my perception, I thought. Then Philip O’Hanlon explained that this was actually the smaller brother to the G1, the G2 Giya, offering “about 95% of the performance in a cabinet that’s 50% smaller at a savings of 25%.”

The G2 Giya uses the same three forward-facing drivers, but trades the G1’s 11.5” side-firing woofers for 9.5” versions. O’Hanlon laughed and apologized, “I can’t really turn the system up as high as it needs to be. Earlier in the day, I played “Joe Si Ha” by Tosca, and the bass was so visceral it drowned out the music next door!”

We were listening at relatively low volumes during my visit, however, and I was most impressed by the system’s ability to toss images all about a very wide soundstage. There was a delicacy and control here that reminded me of what I heard at Wes’s place. And I appreciated the G2’s much smaller (and friendlier) stature.