First Impression: Vivid Audio B1 Speakers

I had a pair of 1.5's for about 2 weeks on loan from my dealer...they were pretty amazing, but my wife hates the way they look, so I'm not going to be buying them. Took them back last weekend and he had B1's hooked up. My wife and I sat and listened, and I'll tell you ( to my ears) they imaged better than any speaker I can remember, and I've been at this hobby for 40+ years. Top to bottom sound was unbelievably coherent and smooth. Truly incredible sounding speakers. My wife was completely blown away by their sound. If I had the money to buy them I would, plus, my wife finds them less 'weird looking' than the 1.5's.

Og33, do you recall the amp used at your dealer?

F1a,
He had a Rogue amp powering them. Don't know which model, but it was a stereo amp, not the mono blocks.

My dealer brought a pair of B1 to my home. We used my Nagra PL-L pre together with a pair of Nagra PMA. The detail, the sound stage were amazing. I would buy them if it wasn't for two problems for which I still didn't find a solution:

1. The bass was completely out of control. Someone said it may be due to lack of power from the amps. My dealer says that's not the case. At 200W each, are supposed to be at ease with it. I'd believe it's my living room.

2. The dynamics is exaggerated. Listening to a string quartet I would always feel like wanting to raise the volume when a single violin is playing softly and immediately felt like lowering it when the four instruments go into a crescendo.

The B1 sounded like an untamed beast.

Maybe these 2 problems can be solved with room correction. I have a fairly vivid 30m2 living room with a bookshelf, a large rug, but some clean walls. And if that is the case I'd buy them. But... I won't risk.

I'm currently listening to a set of Avalon Ascent which they brought just for me to try an alternative. Even though the bass is far from controlled, it's still much more "normal". And the dynamics problem is not there. But they lack the detail, de soundstange, de realism of the Vivid Audio. I don't like them. I think once you listen to Vivid Audio speakers... you get hooked to how much detail and presence they achieve without becoming tiring or aggressive.

So, my dealer will now bring back the V1.5 which already sounded amazing at my home except for the lack of bass which we now intend to try to solve adding a subwoofer. But I fear that the V1.5 may be too small for my 30m2 room and that maybe I should be getting a full range speaker instead of a pair of monitors which I then have to complement with a subwoofer.

It would be nice to get some opinions on this.

Thanks in advance,
Nuno

So you have had two well regarded speakers in your room with bass issues. I do think you have your room to deal with.

Shakey