Vivid's designer, Laurence Dickie, is an alumnus of another British speaker manufacturer,…
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I've had Vivid Audio's Oval K1 loudspeaker here for several months. Over many years, the only other speaker brands I've written about as much as I have Vivid have been Wilson Benesch and Shahinian Acoustics, whose speakers I still revere and can recommend without reservation—to the right listener. But Vivid's high-tech sorcery has raised the bar. The Vivids I've had here are among the best loudspeakers I've ever heard, and that's a consensus that seems headed in the direction of critical mass.
I asked Vivid's US distributor, Philip O'Hanlon, if he had any ideas that might explain my reactions to the K1. He explained that the additional woofers required a somewhat different crossover design, and that the K1's crossover had benefited from "lessons learned" in designing the B1. He also pointed out that the K1's minimum impedance of 4.8 ohms is higher than the B1's 2.8 ohms, making it an easier load to drive. Ah. Those 2 ohms could really make a difference—and I'm not joking.
I heard a clear difference in the two speakers' bass extension and power in my room. (Vivid claims bass…
Sidebar Contacts
Vivid Audio Limited, The Old Barn, Rosier Business Park, Coneyhurst Road, Billinghurst, West Sussex RH14 9DE. Tel: (44) 1403-78-2221. Web: www.vividaudio.com.
Coherent Acoustic Systems cc, PO Box 343, Kloof 3640, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. Tel: (27) (0)31-705-41-68.
US distributor: On a Higher Note LLC, PO Box 698, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92693. Tel: (949) 488-3004. Fax: (949) 488-3284. Web: www.onahighernote.com
It's the first rule of being a stereophile: sound quality is serious business. Simon Gibson, one of the engineers at Abbey Road Studios who worked on EMI's new Signature Collection of hybrid SACD/CDs, knows the drill: remaster and change the sound of a much-loved classical recording from the label's glorious back catalog and you risk becoming a target of blogs and forums. Gibson's aware that the more hallowed the recording, the more quickly knives come out at the mention of remastering.
"We're not in the business of screwing with people's memories or trying to annoy people," Gibson says…
So what are the parameters for making these "improvements"? What are Gibson and his fellow engineers specifically looking to heighten or eliminate?
"We're listening to it with experienced ears and sort of thinking, Does it sound natural? If it's an orchestral recording, does it sound like a good orchestral recording should—does it sound balanced, high frequency, low frequency; are there particular frequencies that are a bit nasty, that are a bit harsh? Sometimes that's the case. It's those sorts of questions that you ask, and then decide to make some changes to the EQ, and that's when,…
The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock 'n' Roll
by Preston Lauterbach
338 pages. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011. Hardcover, $26.95; paperback, $16.95.
by Preston Lauterbach
338 pages. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011. Hardcover, $26.95; paperback, $16.95.
In December 1941, just after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S.'s declaration of war, the state of Indiana unwittingly endorsed a very different conflict by approving the incorporation of a talent agency headed by Denver Ferguson, an Indianapolis-based African-American entrepreneur. The Chitlin' Circuit and the Road to Rock 'n' Roll documents the second of these campaigns, launched by the musical forces Ferguson dispatched…
One drawback of the New York-centric jazz world (and I say this as a New Yorker) is that musicians who live elsewhere too often go ignored. Oral histories are full of tales about some tenor saxophonist in Mississippi, or a guitarist in Nevada, who influenced someone who influenced everyone else. And so you should definitely check out the Denver trumpeter Ron Miles’ riveting new CD, Quiver (on the Enja label).
This is a trio album as oddball as its name, with Bill Frisell on electric guitar and Brian Blade on drums: no piano, no bass, no other horns. You’d expect it to sound threadbare; it…
Barring the unlikely resurrection of either the summertime Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago or this magazine’s own fondly remembered movable feasts of the 1990s, there is only one hi-fi event for which I would board an airplane: Welcome to Denver. And while this non-flyer is already considering renting a car and driving home Monday, I’m glad as hell to be here: I think this is going to be fun.
Michael Lavorgna, editor of our sister site AudioStream.com, moderated a computer audio seminar on RMAF’s first day. Participants, from left to right: David Chesky (HDtracks.com), Andreas Koch (Playback Designs), Gordon Rankin (Wavelength Audio), Rob Robinson (Channel D Software), Mark Waldrep (AIX Records), Steve Silberman (AudioQuest), and Michael Lavorgna.
A great crowd of enthusiastic audiophiles and music lovers gathered at the registration booth for the 2012 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.