My Long List of Amplifiers and My Personal Review of Each!
You are right WCSS.... And my bad habit is to start "conducting" when there is a piece that really excites me... And subvocalize the bass line to boot.... All fine when I do it at home, but you can't believe how annoying that was for ppl at RMAF.... I had to learn PDQ to curb my enthusiasms and be still and quiet like a real serious&respectable audiophile *Grins!* G. |
You will be shocked by the ZZ Top one , if you have not heard it,You’ll be impressed by the Guitar Tone of Johnny A and the Bass of Hare Krishna ,Quantic ,Thanks Dub, and by the overall excellent sound of Sojourn of Arjuna , Everything must Go. Like i said these are not your usual test tracks, but instead they are interesting and different... to me anyway |
About the speakers. Kef makes the Uni-Q driver, and a lot of audiophiles swear by that design in the Blade 2. Coherent point source philosophy. On the other side, Vivid makes 4 way speakers like the G2 and they swear by that design. More driver philosophy. Both are opposite designs.... Somebody has got to do something right and the other something wrong...?? They can’t be both right in their approach..... I sometime feel we are being framed by a lot of speaker makers, the thing is it is very difficult to know the ultimate truth behind the curtain... |
techno_dude - There's usually more than one way to engineer a design, and it's rare when one approach is best in all aspects. Trade-offs are generally involved and in audio it's further complicated since subjective preferences are so significant. So it's not a matter of right or wrong in engineering decisions, but coming up with effective ways to address specific problems. Take turntables for example, there are low mass designs which some companies specialize in while others choose to use high mass. One is not inherently better than the other, but we can all benefit from the many choices in the wide range of products that we have available. |
@techno_dude It is too hard to do concentric speakers with multiple drivers as well as individual drivers each perfectly designed for their frequency range - too many compromises. However, a large multi-driver speaker won’t sound integrated from 3 feet away. So large multidriver speakers are limited to farfield listening. Horses for courses.... |
@axeman Love Johnny A. .His tone is fantastic. So smooth and Wonderful sounding. I have the "Get Inside " and the "Sometimes Tuesday Morning "Albums. I have 90% of Bela Fleck albums also . Here is some of Johnny A’s Guitar collection https://www.guitarplayer.com/guitaraficionado/johnny-a-reveals-his-gorgeous-gibsons-and-gretsches Please check out Robben Ford’s "Going Down Slow" with Jimmy Witherspoon Singing. If you are a Guitar Guy, you gotta love that one and probably Robben Ford too ! |
Maybe there was a problem with the speakers and he is trying to get a return. Maybe he did not received them yet because delivery was delayed or he wasnt home to accept shipment. Maybe he took a little vacation week end for his birthday and his wife said no forum typing please for a couple of days. Maybe something I or someone wrote frustrated him. ( hope not) |
Lots of wishes here... lol. The vivid audios are spectacular. On another league from what I’ve owned. The best bass I’ve had in my room by far. It’s a 68k speaker for a reason. They don’t compress, don’t sound congested, never bright, and the most massive soundstage I’ve heard that unfortunately my room can’t accomodate. They need more space than what I’ve given them. They already present a huge picture but when you use the 900u in mono mode, they open up even more but this actually becomes too huge for my room to accomodate. If I use the gryphon 300, things actually sound better because the soundstage isn’t as huge with it so it fits better in my room. Luxman works beautiful with it but it adds even more size to the soundstage which isn’t needed with this speaker. Yes, the speakers have been sold along with my Wilsons. I need a dedicated room for these beasts and that won’t come for me until next year. I’m sitting too close to the speakers and they need me to go back even more than the 8-9 feet where I sit. Once my room is built hopefully next year, I’ll bring back another vivid audio. It’s something quite special. For now, and in the interim, I’ll be using a focal Sopra 3 once I lock in a deal. |
WC, based on your past reports with larger speakers overwhelming your room, I wish you had chosen the Sopra 2. I suspect the 3 will overwhelm your room as well. I heard the 2 last month against the SF Futuras in a huge 20x25x10 room with both speakers 10+ feet apart. The Sopra 2 were amazing and fun. Much boogie factor. Oh my I loved it. Not at all the refinements or clarity of the SFs but I immensely liked the Sopra 2 . After hearing the 2, a return to the SFs was so mellow. I would love to own both! I don't recall another time where I heard two very different speakers and that I liked both so much. I can imagine the Sopra line to be an awesome fit based on your comments and I suspect it's not so picky about amplifiers like the SFs. But the 3's bass will likely be too much for you after hearing the 2 pump out so much energy in the large room. |
What is your room size ? I'm thinking you should apply some room treatment and that will elevate your room musicality. You can contact https://www.acousticfields.com/ , they are the best and there carbon absorption is also the best bass absorber https://www.acousticfields.com/product-category/sound-absorption/acda-series/. |
If you want a speaker to fit your room try TAD COMPACT EVOLUTION ONE. http://www.technicalaudiodevices.com/compact-evolution-one Which you can set very close to them. They have 1.3 Beryllium tweeter with composite midrange, all they drivers specifically made to it :) |
@whitecamaross Yup. Just as I stated. Vivid are like Nautilus but with a lot more bass - too much bass by your account and actually no surprise to me. The Focal Sopra 3 is a step backwards from Wilson Sasha 2...the waterfall plot says it all - unwanted resonances everywhere. Nice even dispersion though. Definitely a great speaker but a step back nevertheless. https://www.stereophile.com/content/focal-sopra-no3-loudspeaker-measurements |
a connection of mine is praising the magico s5 mk2 constantly. He keeps telling me to just buy them and be done, but magico is Russian roulette in terms of used market value. You never know if you will have to take the bullet to the head in order to get rid of them. Magico is 10 times harder to sell than Wilson. Plenty of dealers have warned me about them. They are good speakers, but take their retail price and split it in half and that should be the price IF IT IS A CURRENT PRODUCT. This means if you buy lets say a 40k magico with a 20% dealer discount, you are paying 32k. Fast forward time about 12-16 months and get ready to take a massive bath in order to unload the speaker. The magico fan tends to be like a "corvette" owner. They buy mint shape, little miles, squeaky clean, full service records, clean carfax, blah blah blah AND THEN you can begin to talk price. That is why magico owners tend to be which is why they end up buying from a dealer instead. I do want to hear them in my house, but that is an expensive trial. Imagine if i paid a dealer 32k for a pair of magicos that retail for 40k (again, current models) and i don't like the speaker? that would cost me in excess of 5,000-10,000 dollars just to try them because i would have to sell them for about 22-25k to unload them. |
WC, if the Vivid G1 are the best speakers you eard except that they don’t fit your room. Why don’t you just get smaller Vivid G3 or G4 ?? I beleive I already know the answer, there are some other things you don’t like about the G1 you do not wish to share on this thread. I understand this, perfectly normal for reasons that are your business only. We, experienced audiogoners, can read between the lines. We well know that someone experienced like you absolutely won’t make the mistake of buying overloading speakers...it is not rocket science...its room size vs speakers size... surely your conections will give you that information before you buy... also dealers are supposed to know that...it is the reason we pay them huge markup... to guide us in selecting the right 30k or 60k speaker to fit the environment in which it will be playing and getting us satisfaction. |
I can’t get a deal that’s worthy enough for g3s and I don’t want to buy a g3 to sell again once I have my room ready PLUS I DONT WANT TO USE SUBS EVER with music unless it’s a Logan with the built in powered woofers. I don’t want to deal with stupid subs for music. I was offered the rel ref 25 for a steal and I passed many times. If I have to use subs with speakers then let it be because I own bookshelf speakers and not massive 250 lbs speakers. To me, a speaker that’s huge and weighs a ton and can’t Push bass out is a complete turd. I can’t understand why some people buy 100k magicos and still need subs. That’s ridiculous unless you have a room the size of a dance club then sure. Else, there’s zero justification for that. Lastly, why are you surprised that I’m selling them ? They are still in my room FYI. I also sold the Rowland’s and I still think they are the best amps I’ve owned. How many times have I sold luxman ? 4 ? And I have it again. How about the ref10? 3 times? And I have it again. How are the G1s any different ? I sell my gear all the time... |
Good idea ysound. Find you a pair of preowned Q5 at a price you will feel good about. They will work now , and most probably in your future room also. When the room is done, you ll have option to sell or keep depending on your goal of the moment nebob, I think even if the G2 fits his present room, WC will not want to keep them in his future bigger room...because the G1 would be the better speaker for that new room. |
A ballroom is needed for the G1. The same goes for G1 Spirit. However, the Spirit is not so tall, so I guess the listener will be able to sit closer. The G2 will work well in larger rooms too - without subs. The bass is a bit faster and tighter on the G2 compared to the old G1. That was one of the things that was improved on the Spirit. The Spirit would be my endgame speaker, provided I had the room for it. I will have to settle for the G2.😁 |
Any pics of WC setup? I am starting to have trouble believing this thread. Nobody buys Vivid G1 and then unloads them in less than a week or at least nobody with sanity. Along with all the other changes since 2015 it just seems too crazy to be credible. Like a drunken walk - somewhat random. The only thing that would make sense is if WC is a dealer - maybe I missed that somewhere. |
