It was as if art were imitating bad technology. Ensconced in orchestra seats T1 and T3, designated "Prime Orchestra" in San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall, I and longtime audio consultant and dealer Tim Marutani were befuddled by what we heard. For all their vaunted superiority, the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, sounded like a dim, disordered mess. Highs were flat and lifeless, the midrange was muddled, and the deep double basses sounded so…
search
A funny thing happened at the symphony the other night. A concert by the great Berlin Philharmonic sounded like lousy hi-fi.
Over the years that I've been reviewing hi-fi, I've had my share of loudspeakers that drew comments from everyone who visited during the audition period. Some of those comments were about the speakers' appearance—most often about their size—and some were about how good they sounded. Vivid's G1Giya loudspeaker ($65,000/pair), its narrow-baffled, swirling cochlear shape molded from fiber-reinforced composite, elicited more comments of both types than has any other speaker I've reviewed.
This started even before I got them into my living room, as Philip O'Hanlon, of Vivid importer…
The crossover frequencies are 220, 880, and 3500Hz. "As far as the filter order is concerned," says Dickie, "we use Linkwitz-Riley fourth-order acoustic responses; that is to say that the overall responses of each driver and crossover combination are fourth-order. Now, since most drivers have a natural second-order rolloff at their lower end and often a first or second at the top end, this means the electrical network order might only need to be second- or third-order."
Set vivid, detailed goals
Other than accessing their bottom-mounted, biwirable speaker terminals—a two-person job…
"Suite de Caravan," from Jon Hassell's Fascinoma (Water Lily Acoustics, 24/88 FLAC download, HDtracks), sounded amazing through the G1s. I've listened to this track on CD for years, and expected this hi-rez download to sound atmospheric and timbrally alive. What I didn't anticipate was how huge the acoustic space it took place in must have been. A duet between trumpeter Hassell and pianist Jacky Terrasson, it created, through the Vivids, a soundstage that stretched from wall to wall, floor to ceiling, and behind the speakers to some point beyond my front wall. It was, perhaps, the most…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Four-way, five-driver floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units (all Tapered tube–loaded, all proprietary to Vivid Audio): 1" (26mm) D26 aluminum-dome tweeter, 2" (50mm) D50 aluminum-dome midrange cone, 4.9" (125mm) C125S aluminum-cone mid-bass driver, two vented, 11" (279mm) C225 aluminum-cone woofers. Crossover: acoustic Linkwitz-Riley, fourth-order. Crossover frequencies: 220, 880, 3.5kHz. Sensitivity: 91dB/2.83V RMS/m, on axis. Impedance: 6 ohms nominal, 4 ohms minimum, low reactance. Frequency range: 23Hz–44kHz, –6dB. Frequency response: 30Hz–…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP, Luxman DU80 universal disc players; Apple Mac mini 2.5GHz laptop with 250GB LaCie hard drive & 2TB Infrant Technologies NAS; Ayre Acoustics QB-9, Bel Canto USB Link 24/96 USB–S/PDIF converter, Bel Canto e.One DAC3/VBS D/A converters.
Preamplifiers: Aesthetix Calypso SE, Ayre Acoustics K-1xe, Luxman C800f.
Power Amplifiers: Luxman B100f, Parasound Halo JC 1 monoblocks; Aesthetix Atlas, Balanced Audio Technology VK-55SE.
Loudspeakers: Thiel CS3.7.
Cables: USB: EntreQ Discover. Interconnect: Shunyata…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Other than the in-room and nearfield measurements, for which I used an Earthworks QTC-40 microphone, I measured the Vivid G1Giya with DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone. Wes Phillips mentions the fact that the domes of both 50mm upper-midrange units had been damaged late in his auditioning. This occurred after I had performed the in-room measurements but before I took any of the other readings. Vivid sent two replacements, but one of those arrived damaged, apparently at the hands of US customs. Stephen Mejias and I therefore replaced the…
In my review in the February 2009 issue of Marantz's SA-11S2 SACD/CD player ($3599.99), I said that "buying [an SACD] player in 2009 necessitates an act of faith similar to the one turntable buyers faced back in 1992." The negative reaction to this from the besieged SACD community was as intense as it was irrational. If they're angry with me, I can only imagine how they feel about Stanley Lipshitz and John Vanderkooy, who presented a white paper at a 2001 Audio Engineering Society convention that claimed to prove that SACD doesn't qualify as a high-fidelity format (footnote 1). How many…
A look inside the Pearl reveals a quality of construction that's almost opulent, given the reasonable price of $3000. The exterior build quality—including a copper-plated rear panel with a pair of machined-brass RCA jack outputs, coaxial and TosLink digital outputs, and TosLink digital input—is equally impressive, as are the front panel's clean layout and design; and the two vertical stripes of blue LEDs add a dramatic flair.
Features
The SA-KI-Pearl's default playback mode is SACD, but you can switch to the CD layer—and, of course, it plays standard CDs, as well as data discs…
Groove Note has recently issued on SACD/CD its excellent original recording of the Jung Trio's performance of Dvorak's Piano Trio 3 in F Minor, Op.65 (GRV1043-3). Previously available only on 45rpm vinyl, it's one of the few new classical music performances recorded live to analog tape (at 30ips). That it hasn't sold well on vinyl, according to the producers, is pitiful—the recording is gorgeous, and the playing by this award-winning trio of sisters does for chamber music what the Everly Brothers did for vocal harmonizing. These gals are locked in.
The SACD wasn't available for my…