Vivid Giya G1 Spirit - maybe...

[Rodney Gold]

I got mine in Copper ..a few days ago .. and havent stopped listening..you have no idea of how beautiful the spirits sound.. They are now where the G1's were and the G1's wheeled away..speakers on castors

This is a very special speaker indeed .. dic has outdone himself, I have never heard sound like this .. Im enthralled and amazed .. and as they run in they just getting better.
My system isRoon/Tidal, Squeezebox touch , Twin Devialet D premiers and the speakers
sorry for the poor quality pic , the copper is actually quite a bit deeper than the pic provides

[cma29]

I saw and heard these speakers at Bart's home in Belgium and they are beautiful to look at and even better to listen

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by Rodney Gold

I got mine in Copper ..a few days ago .. and havent stopped listening..you have no idea of how beautiful the spirits sound.. They are now where the G1's were and the G1's wheeled away..speakers on castors

This is a very special speaker indeed .. dic has outdone himself, I have never heard sound like this .. Im enthralled and amazed .. and as they run in they just getting better.
My system isRoon/Tidal, Squeezebox touch , Twin Devialet D premiers and the speakers
sorry for the poor quality pic , the copper is actually quite a bit deeper than the pic provides

Rodney... Welcome to AA!

Congrats on your new Spirits

[Rodney Gold]

Thanks ... I appreciate the welcome
Douglas , as a newbie on this forum I cant PM you .. but who are you..I too am in Cape town South Africa...?

Here is my initial impression and those from a pal of mine that came to visit

Initial impressions ..

I think these are very special speakers , even in the compromised position their qualities came thru in spades

I wheeled them to where my G1's were and wheeled the G1's to the back of the room and they sounded even better without the G1's next to em and in the right position

My pal who has a set of G1's and Devialets came round , he lives about a km from me and he was really gobsmacked , his comment was that the speakers have a valve like midrange and treble with iron fisted control (Yay class D amps sounding like valves)

Dropping the whole tweeter , mid tweeter and midrange a little further down than the G1's is very beneficial - it puts the listeners ears more on axis with the drivers ..

Treble is much sweeter and more airy and midrange is what can only be described as beautiful .. there seems a more "fleshing out" of the mids and the lower mids , a more textured sound. I think its due to the new midrange driver.. in fact the microdetail was astounding without anything sounding etched.

Both speakers image exceptionally and have huge soundstages , I think there is very little difference in that dept .. both are absolutely holographic albeit I have to give the spirits the nod for better instrument separation and a slightly more coherent sound right now..they do the G1 trick of allowing you to follow each instrument and thread in the music to come to a totally musical performance. soundstage stretches way beyond the speakers on both sets

Bass is plainly tighter and more potent but initially was lumpy due to room nodes and no correction, I whacked in 2 notch filters to kill my 10+db nodes at 21 and 42 hz (using the parametric with roon) and got a pretty good result.. DIRAC will do better .. but I will wait for the bass units to run in over the next week before i do that.
In terms of dynamics... very horn like .. blinding speed.. the rhythm and pace of music is quite eye opening as compared to what I am used to

How loud.. well you can turn it up to ungodly levels , levels which no sane person would listen at .. and all that happens is it gets louder..no distortion.. no compression..nada!!!!

But what is most telling to me is the fact that I sat and let the music wash over me .. no " critical listening" to the various audiophile qualities , I played Katie Noonan : songs of latin skies .. a cd I know well.. the emotional response it elicited superceeded any other time I have heard this album.. went on to the 2 cd Brubeck at the Carnegie (1963)..an incredibly dynamic performance and was wowed..and must have listened to a further 4 cd's or so .. all without overtly analysing anything.

These are just initial impressions , probably inspired in some part by the shiny new toy syndrome ..I dont want to wax lyrical or critique in full until I have played around more with positioning and bass management and do some back to back comparisons with the G1's

I know its not a cheap upgrade from the G1's but I think it offers excellent value for money in terms of what you get .. they are indeed G1's on steroids.. but IMHO have the potential to offer more than that with better setup and so on.

I then fine tuned the speakers properly and it got better still and I can plainly hear the bass settling down and becoming tighter with more texture .. another of my Audiophile pals came over .. he has an amazing ear and in depth knowledge of music .. has heard my old G1 system many many times .. this is what he had to say:


What an experience, and a wonderful EXPERIENCE it is. This speaker is a tour de force and should not be compared to the G1s, as it is an entirely different beast and should be considered in a class of it's own.

Rodney and myself were joking that we should develop a goose bump inducing measuring machine, think along the lines of those old analogue machines with a thousand knobs - they give you a constant supply of goose bumps from head to toe, that's what these speakers do to you. At the same time, the High Glossary of Audio Terms can be thrown out of the door, There is so much RIGHT that these speakers do that there is no need for you to even think in terms of audiophile terms to express what you are hearing.

It is the first time ever, that I could with the greatest of ease make out each instrument, note being played, the specific place that they are in, the textures, colours, values, the softest to the loudest notes of these instruments, including voices, the sense of space, as in width, height and especially depth of the venue/soundstage are all stupendous. And all of that is not etched, nor forced, nor hard on the ear, at any volume and I pushed it to levels that Rodney squealed he had not listened at.

There was hardly any music, that I knew very well, that wasn't a revelation. From Rosa Passos 'Rosa' album(Telarc) [ which is a magical album both for production values and content], the first track 'Duas Contas' with just her voice is amazing. As Rodney opined earlier all the inflections of the artist(s), the nuances in the language[Portugese here], the phrasing, the atmosphere, ambience and sense of the huge space around and behind her is palpable and easily heard. There is absolutely no ways that this is not goose bump inducing.

Take Hamilton de Holanda's [plays 10 string Mandolin] 'Brasilianos' cd where he is accompanied by an acoustic guitar, electric bass, harmonica and drums in an intimate setting [pics are provided in the booklet], the sounds he and his sidekicks produces are exquisite. His mandolin playing kicks butt. The Spirits conveys the sound in a connectable, tangible and emotional way that I have not experienced with the G1s at its best in Rodney's or any other room.

Lastly, another torture track from the many that I played that was memorable to the nth degree, that I have not played for a long while was Stanley Clarke's ' Lord Of The Low Frequencies' from his East River Drive album - this track had many a system in years past go into protection mode. Not here, no matter how loud you turned it up, the music just sounded better and better and you are helpless in the need to control your facial muscles, as you just smile and keep on smiling with the pleasure this induces.

Of all the mental notes I took, and lots of it I did in the beginning, I later just gave up, and if I had to choose one thing that struck me the most, it had to be this : it is the first time in all my years of listening to music that I can say with total conviction, that I can now hear the artist(s) intent for making the music. And the conveying of this process is as natural is it should be when listening to it through this awesome system.

On a sad note and this comes with a warning, to his credit, this is the first time ever, that Rodney put me out of his house! I took no heed of his subtly telling me that he would put a bed up for me in his room, and then he point blank asked me to leave. Guys, you ARE going to find it hard to leave and I think I have set the standard which Rodney now has to factor in when inviting whomever, that he WILL have to ask you to leave! Thanks for a wonderful afternoon Rodney and congratulations on your latest achievement.

This truly is a remarkable speaker and a great achievement, Kudos to Laurence Dickie and team.

[bart]

Rodney, welcome to AA!

Wow, you have the new Spirit!
Looking very much forward to your impressions as they break in.

[SOA]

Congrats with the Spirits. Fantastic color!

[Rodney Gold]

Some better Pics .. the close up of the mid driver displays the copper colour most like it is in real life

[Masterlu]

Quite beautiful, thanks for sharing!

[GreginNH1]

Get 'em sprayed with Linex truck bed liner. That way, you will never have to worry about scratches!

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by GreginNH1

Get 'em sprayed with Linex truck bed liner. That way, you will never have to worry about scratches!