New Vivid Audio website

[M635csi]

Planars - yes, fantastic tone, pace, resolution. Not so great - LF, and the sensation of listening to headphones - keep your head still or you'll fall out of the sweet spot. Also only Quad ever made really authentic sounding planars, imo.
Open baffles have their own acoustic issues, but I'm not that familiar with them so won't comment too much.

The thing about the Nautilus and the entire Vivid range is that the care taken with the baffle shape results in a larger sweet spot where frequency response is even, so more people can enjoy the music. The vertical dispersion advantage is also there - you can enjoy music sitting, standing or even relaxing on the floor (provided you have a nice soft rug, that is)... So many advantages to a Vivid cabinet then, but generally the public remain steadfastly accepting of "wooden box theory" norms and ignore the problems that Laurence Dickie has identified. Me, I don't get it...

As for the 800 series, beautifully made for sure, but are they really that much different (aesthetically only, of course) from Dickie's designs? I mean, a tube mounted on a blob mounted on a curvy wooden box topped with leather? Not exactly conventional, so why do people automatically rate it? I mean, have you actually listened to any 800 series?

[ivman]

Hi, my name is ivman and I am a tasteless savage!
I love the look of the giya... 

[Francois]

Having heard the K1 and 802N (Not diamond) in my house I would take the Vivid because its utterly effortless in producing music.
The 802 is very good speaker though, might just have the edge in Bass, but only slightly

[M635csi]

Forgive me, Francois, but I am going to quantify your above statement,"The 802 is very good speaker though, might just have the edge in Bass, but only slightly". (In my own opinion of course)

The 802 has "more" bass, no doubt. But the difference comes in when you listen to Tan Dun playing the Cello or even a bit of double bass plucking! Where the low frequency energy is presented with loads power and "weight" by the B&W, the K1 reproduces the texture of that low frequency signal in a honest and detailed manner - you can really feel the bow sliding over the strings, you can feel the resonance of the Cello's frame, you can hear "everything". The snap, the speed of the bass, the zero overhang - a completely different experience to what the B&W's offer. The price you pay certainly is in the sheer volume of the bass, but I think it is a price worth paying unless you are into home theater in which case the shear weight of the bass from the 802 is probably better for explosions etc.

I think the diamond tweeter is nice though. Best driver B&W make, for sure. Plus the 802 Diamond bass is much better than the 802 or 802D. But not in the same league as the K1 for pure reality.

[Shonver]

Having heard the K1 and 802N (Not diamond) in my house I would take the Vivid because its utterly effortless in producing music.
The 802 is very good speaker though, might just have the edge in Bass, but only slightly

That's very high praise indeed, because I'm currently quite impressed with the 802N. I've never heard a Vivid.

I must say, though: the differences described might easily be due integration issues. That is, integration with the listening environment, room acoustics, etc.

[Francois]

If I have to score both on all types of music the Vivid Audio's will come out tops.

@M635csi I love your description, and I think you sum it up perfectly.

I do not listen to classical music at all, I stop just north with bit of Jazz. And there I could hear the K1 excel.

The music where the K1 came up slightly and I have to say slightly is Yello - The Race and Baby CD's. The impact of using synh bass with bass guitar and drums were just too much and the drivers got slightly "confused" if I could put it that way. The 802's were more up to it. Not that the 802N could remotely match the Tannoys there, but that is another story for another day....

You will not believe this but a little bit of Metallica does sound better on K1 too!

I would never use anything like a 802 or K1 in Home theater exclusively, goodness they are works of art, meant to be listened to for hours :-) But then we cant all have room for each system and sometimes have to integrate...

@Shonver - I was also amazed how the K1's sounded! I have not heard the 802Diamonds, but the K1's surprised me a bit. At that stage I was comparing them with Kingdom 18's, a little unfair, but they stood their ground. Voices and Jazz were utterly effortless, like they were not making the music, just letting it out. I would love to hear them again!

[colonel66]

@M635csi i agree with Francois re your description. The G1's have all that you describe in the K1's bass but with more oomph. Once one gets past the depth and listens you can hear the individual bass notes in all their textured glory. No boom or weight is added that is not on the recordings - ok a flipant statement as who knows whats on the recording. But if there is thunderous bass the G1 reproduces it but if not then no added bloat or boom.

To me this added resolution in the bass of the G1 is what makes them so damn addictive relative to the K1's

[M635csi]

Lucky me - I have a pair!

[Francois]

@M635csi   G1's or K1's ?

Dont you want some nice looking 802's 

[audiomuze]

for a sec there I thought this thread read "New Vivid Video website"

[Francois]

 
Sorry you got a point there :-)
Ill take my questions to M635csi offline.....

[audiomuze]

Uhm, strewth, thought I saw vivid video not vivid audio. Point browser and you'll know why it caught my eye 

[Atjan]

/\ tsk tsk

[Francois]

 

[M635csi]

More on topic (!), apart from the new Vivid Audio website, there is a Vivid Audio Facebook page that seems to be updated almost every day. Sometimes it's a bit technical and there's loads of pics of Vivid gear from all around the world, I thought it quite interesting...