[Morty]

A South African Company VIVID SPEAKERS demoed their biggest Model K1 at the London Heathrow HiFi Show. Although their room was too small to give any proof of the speakers bass performance, what I heard surely INDICATED a very well defined and deep bass. But above all, the mids and highs vere utterly neutral and very dynamic.  
I wonder if anybody have heard these speakers and if so, any opinion to share regarding their performance in bigger and more normal listening room?

For those who have not heard about VIVID Speakers; Heres the link to their website:
http://www.vividspeakers.com/

Looking in detail at the desig, one will find similarities to B&W Nautulus Prestige.
No wonder, the man behind the B&W project is the same as the one behind VIVID; "Dic" a nice guy whom I talked with for a long time at the HiFI Show, not knowing then who he was.

Have any of you heard the K1 or (smaller) B1 model?
Morty

[MikeC]

Hi Morty

I was invited to the official launch a couple of months ago. I am incredibly disappointed that I couldn't make it. I was unfortunately hit over the head with a sledgehammer - actually, it was the worst flu I've experienced, but it felt about the same   .

I have known Bruce Gessner for some time, and I can vouch that he is no monkey or pure marketer. There are very sound (excuse the pun) engineering principles involved in the design. Although Laurence Dickie is the big name designer, Bruce has been talking about the principles used in the speaker for some time, but it has obviously evolved and been refined with Dic's involvement. I have seen (but not yet heard) all three in the range in the flesh, and they are extremely well built, even if the design is not quite to my taste visually.

An enormous amount of money has been sunk into developing these speakers and they are certainly not a "me too" design. If you can afford the asking price, please do give them a listen. They are way beyond my purchasing power, but judging from the systems listed by some AC participants, well within reach of some.

I have no connection with Vivid, I would just like to put SA on the international Hi-Fi map and see some innovation rewarded.

Cheers

Mike

[Morty]

Thanks Mike.
Sad to hear that you got the flu in lieu of listening to well made speakers.
Actually, I feel something is sneeking up myself, but hope it's nothing grave.

Anyhow,  I am pleased to inform that I am invited to visit the German distributor WBS Acoustics, near Frankfurt 29.10.04 for a thorough Demo of K1
 
I will spend quite some time on Friday evening and Saturday with this speaker, playing my own music and so on.
I am informed that the demo-room is actually a privat living room of about the same size as my own; about 37 m2
Report follows:
Morty