VIVID AUDIO SPEAKERS

I love Vivid and am a huge fan of Lawrence Dickie.  Brilliant and it was a few interviews with him that gave me the confidence to launch my speaker line using composite cabinets.  

The integration of driver and the fiberglass cabinets that they use are extraordinary.  It is always a matter of taste and they tend to not offer deep bass so need to be augmented with subwoofers, but the frequency response they do offer is absolutely brilliant and truly one of the elite speaker companies in the world.  

When looking at Vivid (fiberglass cabinets), there are a small number of products that actually compete with them.  Wilson Benesch Geometry (carbon fiber), Kef Blades and above (fiberglass), Wilson (cast phenolic resin), Marten (cf or fiberglass in certain products), Rockport (unspecified composite), YG and Magic (aluminum), Verdant (My Company - fiberglass and cf in certain products), Kaiser (rubber composite).  There are a couple others but not many others that are produce cabinets that are not mdf/wood.  

These non-traditional cabinets offer superior damping and are really special but are pricey.   

There are several companies that make amazing and unique speakers using MDF or other wood based materials beyond ATC.  

Innovative designs and creative solutions to each part of a speaker is something I wish more people would engage in.  Whether it be in shape, where a company like Vivid really pushes the limits, driver material where someone like Accuton, B&W and Paradigm are pushing limits. 

Open baffles, planars, electrostatics, whatever MBLs  are...these companies all pushing limits and producing amazing products.  

And even within the utilisation of composites, there are multiple cores and each behaves differently.  Some use balsa, others use airex and in my case, I use a nomex honeycomb.  To my knowledge, I am the only company that uses a nomex honeycomb core and if you recall, I even sent you a white paper on the benefits of this, explicitly around sound damping. 

I would agree completely that my speakers are "boxes with driver" and I don't use MDF.  True statement but this post isn't about my speakers, it's about Vivid .  And you are correct, Vivid does many things that are different and taken in aggregate, they produce some amazing, truly differentiated products.  I don't think Lawrence Dickie get's enough credit for the innovative things he's done.  

To the OP, I am not sure why Kenjit is trying to make this thread about me.  Vivid makes wonderful products that you should have a high level of confidence in buying.  This will be my final post in this thread and my apologies for the hijack.  

@kenjito to my knowledge you have never heard or even seen my speakers.  Did you come visit me at CAF or AXPONA last year?   If you did, wonderful.  I wish you would have introduced yourself.  If not, I suppose it is moot. I know you despise boxed speakers.  

Regarding the materials, the different impedance associated with the fiberglass or CH combined with the air and nomex honeycomb is an improvement in terms of damping.  To maximize efficacy, additional damping materials (stuffing) is required.  CF is also slightly more effective than fiberglass due to it's more textured surface.  In practical applications, the aerospace company that makes my cabinets uses these panels with additional light-weight damping material to reduce cabin noise from 120dB to below 70dBs.  Is it perfect?  No.  Is it a legitimate attempt to address issues within a box speaker?  Yes.  You obviously disagree.  That is fine.  

Vivid does more.  The shape of their designs are a further step in addressing this issue beyond material.  But to ignore material is to literally ignore what the designer explicitly says regarding the speakers.  The speaker drivers are explicitly designed based on how they interact with the cabinet and the exotic designs are explicitly intended to optimize sound production.  I don't have the resources to design my own drivers so I had to experiment with 3rd party units to see what worked best.  

Some day, I hope my speakers are sold broadly enough that I will have enough profit to invest in further R&D to address all the issues.  Regarding "mass production", last year my peak production run was 14 cabinets (7 pairs).  I am a true small business trying to experiment and have risked my retirement on it.  I am self funded, don't have deep pockets from the sale of another business and still work a day job.  In the interim, I am going to build the best product I possibly can.