Last week found me in beautiful San Diego for a medical meeting. No question that it was a pure delight to step off the airplane and actually see the ground without the snow that has prevented similar sightings back East for a few months now. (I’m back home and its snowing as I write this. ARGHHH. Enough already. Where are you Spring?)
Fortunately, I managed to escape one evening to visit Steve and through his efforts, managed to visit Philip O’Hanlon who many of you know is a distributor for a number of goodies such as Luxman and Mola Mola electronics, and Vivid speakers. I made my way to Philip’s specifically to hear the Vivid Giya 1 speakers. There are only a handful of Vivid dealers in the US and to the best of my knowledge, none of them have the G1 on display. I have heard the G2 and G3 speakers at shows, therefore the opportunity to hear the G1’s that Philip uses as his personal speakers, was a welcome opportunity I had long sought.
To begin, Philip’s listening room is not just large, it’s huge. It is the “Great Room” of a beautiful contemporary home and if my guess is close, its about 40’x 30’x 40’ high (open second story). Needless to say, its takes some serious SPL to fill the room and fortunately, there is no shortage of adequate sound level in Philip’s system. Driven by the gorgeous Luxman monoblocs and associated electronics, its clear that the G1’s can put out gobs of volume. Apparently their designer, Laurence Dickie, who designed the B&W Nautilus, spent part of his career doing sound reinforcement. Thus part of the design goal for the Giya speaker line was to assure they would be able to play loud without significant distortion. To say that Dickie was successful is an understatement. In all my years of listening, I have never heard a speaker play as loud and as clean as the G1. We played some rock and assorted other torture tracks until my ears were bleeding yet the integrity of the sound remained simply astonishing top to bottom. And remember, he’s pumping these babies into a space that’s more like the Meramec caverns than a modest-sized listening room. However, low distortion at volume is only the beginning of the speaker’s many charms. At 92dB@1W efficiency it's comforting to know that a modestly powered amp would likely be sufficient for most users in their present listening rooms.
Before we go any further, it’s important to note that the material Philip chose to play is extraordinary in its own right. As everyone knows, Philip has produced about 17 highly praised CD demo discs over the years. I don’t know how the hell he does it, but he has developed a proprietary way of upsampling his usual sources and then laying them down on CD in a way that results in one sonic spectacular after another. (Of course, he starts with extraordinary material to begin with, but by the time he’s done, they are spit-shined to another level).
The unique capabilities of the speaker’s individual drivers are apparently due in part to the tapered tube loading of each driver, which was the main technical accomplishment Dickie employed in the Nautilus. Here, he seems to have taken it to a different level as I ain’t never heard any Nautilus sound remotely as good as this loudspeaker. Philip went on at length to describe the pearls of Dickie’s driver design, choice of cabinet design and a variety of other technical features that I found interesting but to be honest, irrelevant to the pleasure of the listening experience. Philip, I love technobabble as much as the next audiophile, but just play another track, please. I’d like to get back to my hotel room before dawn. I did, but not after Philip played me a master-tape of Hugh Masekela’s extraordinary recording of “Coal Train”, and if I remember correctly, they had to scrape me off the floor when it was over. I know that track well, as it on the Burmester 3 demo CD. But never have I heard it as I did at Philip’s. When Masekela makes that unforgettable whistle sound with his voice, there has never been a tweeter on the planet capable of reproducing that sound with the dynamics, lack of distortion or compression that one would hear in real life. Until now.
The G1 has a cohesiveness and integrity that’s simply outstanding. Trying to detect crossover points is a waste of time, and the combination of filter design and phase coherence due to 4th order Linkwitz Wiley filters result in one impeccable sounding seamless speaker. It’s almost impossible not to comment specifically on the tautness and power of the bass, a feature for which the Giya line is noted regardless of model. The use of “reaction-cancelling compliance mounting” of the woofers, which face outwards on both sides of the cabinets is apparently the key to this performance.
Recording after recording resulted in a listening session I just didn’t want to end. No room or time for audiophilia nervosa listening. Rather, it was “sit down, shut up and let the music wash over you”. Speaker? What speaker? It should be this way all the time, right?
Regarding the shape of the cabinet, I suspect that you’re either going to love it or hate it. All I will say is that if WAF is an issue, I would consider keeping the speaker and changing wives. Consider yourself forewarned. Once you get that speak in your room, be prepared because no amount of evil looks from your spouse is going to be motivation enough to displace them.
There were a few main take-away’s from the session that seemed pretty obvious. The first, is that the speaker is a technical tour-de-force that is equally impressive in design as it is in the sound it produces regardless of source or type of music. It is a flat-out sonic masterpiece. But I am left with one puzzling observation, which is, why is this a speaker that basically nobody has ever heard? I am told the only G1 speaker on a showroom floor in North America is located in Montreal. Philip says that frankly, they are too big to bring to a show. That’s too bad. I suspect that I would not be the only audiophile to fall in love with these beasts if they had a bit more exposure. More compelling is that the price of the G1 is less than half of what the big boys from Wilson, Magico and Rockport cost. I have not heard them side by side with any of those superb speakers, but even if I did I suspect that the value proposition for the G1’s would remain outstanding. I don’t know about you, but if it were me, I would strongly consider owning the G1 and taking the difference to buy that Ferrari you’ve always wanted. Or even better, buy a nice piece of jewelry for your wife to raise your standing at home, and then perhaps a BMW instead of a Ferrari. You get the idea.
Finally, I wish to offer a personal note of gratitude to Philip for his kindness and hospitality. I only wish I didn’t have to drive when I left, or I would have taken more liberty with the outstanding wine he offered so generously!
Fortunately, I managed to escape one evening to visit Steve and through his efforts, managed to visit Philip O’Hanlon who many of you know is a distributor for a number of goodies such as Luxman and Mola Mola electronics, and Vivid speakers. I made my way to Philip’s specifically to hear the Vivid Giya 1 speakers. There are only a handful of Vivid dealers in the US and to the best of my knowledge, none of them have the G1 on display. I have heard the G2 and G3 speakers at shows, therefore the opportunity to hear the G1’s that Philip uses as his personal speakers, was a welcome opportunity I had long sought.
To begin, Philip’s listening room is not just large, it’s huge. It is the “Great Room” of a beautiful contemporary home and if my guess is close, its about 40’x 30’x 40’ high (open second story). Needless to say, its takes some serious SPL to fill the room and fortunately, there is no shortage of adequate sound level in Philip’s system. Driven by the gorgeous Luxman monoblocs and associated electronics, its clear that the G1’s can put out gobs of volume. Apparently their designer, Laurence Dickie, who designed the B&W Nautilus, spent part of his career doing sound reinforcement. Thus part of the design goal for the Giya speaker line was to assure they would be able to play loud without significant distortion. To say that Dickie was successful is an understatement. In all my years of listening, I have never heard a speaker play as loud and as clean as the G1. We played some rock and assorted other torture tracks until my ears were bleeding yet the integrity of the sound remained simply astonishing top to bottom. And remember, he’s pumping these babies into a space that’s more like the Meramec caverns than a modest-sized listening room. However, low distortion at volume is only the beginning of the speaker’s many charms. At 92dB@1W efficiency it's comforting to know that a modestly powered amp would likely be sufficient for most users in their present listening rooms.
Before we go any further, it’s important to note that the material Philip chose to play is extraordinary in its own right. As everyone knows, Philip has produced about 17 highly praised CD demo discs over the years. I don’t know how the hell he does it, but he has developed a proprietary way of upsampling his usual sources and then laying them down on CD in a way that results in one sonic spectacular after another. (Of course, he starts with extraordinary material to begin with, but by the time he’s done, they are spit-shined to another level).
The unique capabilities of the speaker’s individual drivers are apparently due in part to the tapered tube loading of each driver, which was the main technical accomplishment Dickie employed in the Nautilus. Here, he seems to have taken it to a different level as I ain’t never heard any Nautilus sound remotely as good as this loudspeaker. Philip went on at length to describe the pearls of Dickie’s driver design, choice of cabinet design and a variety of other technical features that I found interesting but to be honest, irrelevant to the pleasure of the listening experience. Philip, I love technobabble as much as the next audiophile, but just play another track, please. I’d like to get back to my hotel room before dawn. I did, but not after Philip played me a master-tape of Hugh Masekela’s extraordinary recording of “Coal Train”, and if I remember correctly, they had to scrape me off the floor when it was over. I know that track well, as it on the Burmester 3 demo CD. But never have I heard it as I did at Philip’s. When Masekela makes that unforgettable whistle sound with his voice, there has never been a tweeter on the planet capable of reproducing that sound with the dynamics, lack of distortion or compression that one would hear in real life. Until now.
The G1 has a cohesiveness and integrity that’s simply outstanding. Trying to detect crossover points is a waste of time, and the combination of filter design and phase coherence due to 4th order Linkwitz Wiley filters result in one impeccable sounding seamless speaker. It’s almost impossible not to comment specifically on the tautness and power of the bass, a feature for which the Giya line is noted regardless of model. The use of “reaction-cancelling compliance mounting” of the woofers, which face outwards on both sides of the cabinets is apparently the key to this performance.
Recording after recording resulted in a listening session I just didn’t want to end. No room or time for audiophilia nervosa listening. Rather, it was “sit down, shut up and let the music wash over you”. Speaker? What speaker? It should be this way all the time, right?
Regarding the shape of the cabinet, I suspect that you’re either going to love it or hate it. All I will say is that if WAF is an issue, I would consider keeping the speaker and changing wives. Consider yourself forewarned. Once you get that speak in your room, be prepared because no amount of evil looks from your spouse is going to be motivation enough to displace them.
There were a few main take-away’s from the session that seemed pretty obvious. The first, is that the speaker is a technical tour-de-force that is equally impressive in design as it is in the sound it produces regardless of source or type of music. It is a flat-out sonic masterpiece. But I am left with one puzzling observation, which is, why is this a speaker that basically nobody has ever heard? I am told the only G1 speaker on a showroom floor in North America is located in Montreal. Philip says that frankly, they are too big to bring to a show. That’s too bad. I suspect that I would not be the only audiophile to fall in love with these beasts if they had a bit more exposure. More compelling is that the price of the G1 is less than half of what the big boys from Wilson, Magico and Rockport cost. I have not heard them side by side with any of those superb speakers, but even if I did I suspect that the value proposition for the G1’s would remain outstanding. I don’t know about you, but if it were me, I would strongly consider owning the G1 and taking the difference to buy that Ferrari you’ve always wanted. Or even better, buy a nice piece of jewelry for your wife to raise your standing at home, and then perhaps a BMW instead of a Ferrari. You get the idea.
Finally, I wish to offer a personal note of gratitude to Philip for his kindness and hospitality. I only wish I didn’t have to drive when I left, or I would have taken more liberty with the outstanding wine he offered so generously!
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