Anyone hear Vivid Audio Speakers? Considering Vivid Giya G1 Series 2 from Magico S5 MKII

@mheinze

(I should know I am a professional musician).

I play piano/synth, guitar (acoustic/electric), bass, drums, sax.  I come from a musical family - Dad was a jazz musician and music teacher.  We had 3 pianos in the house in constant use, a trombone, various saxes, trumpet, clarinet, flute, guitars, drums, bass, you name it.  Either my father was playing one of those, or one of us where playing instruments. 


I used to use recordings of real instruments I owned, and voices of my family, for live-vs-reproduced comparisons when checking out speakers.I still use those recordings sometimes to double check through speakers I have at home.  (Not to mention, for my job I'm constantly recording real life sounds).


A lot of us here have a good idea of what real instruments sound like. :)


I'm not disputing that the Magicos sound more "right" to you, or that the Harbeths are "more right."  No speaker is perfect and we all tend to focus on certain things that sound "right" to us when we choose our speaker.

I loved the Harbeths and bought them to see if I could replace my larger Thiel speakers at the time.   I sold the Harbeths because in direct comparison my Thiels struck me as a bit better in almost all areas, mostly "cleaner" and more precise - some of which I think was due to the "remove cabinet vibration from the design" in the Thiel strategy vs the "let the cabinet vibrate" strategy in the Harbeth.  The Magicos would definitely, like the Thiels, sound cleaner in the sense of "less box" than the Harbeths.

But, still, to my ears, almost everything sounded essentially "right" through the Harbeths in a way that escapes most speakers - just something about their way with instrumental timbres - whereas almost nothing sounded "quite right" in the sense of "could I believe this is a sax, or acoustic guitar in front of me?" when closing my eyes listening to the Magico speakers.  The Magicos certainly presented something "super clear" in front of me, but it just didn't make me believe I was hearing the timbre of a real instrument in front of me.   That was true again when I recently listened to a very nice Magico set up at a high end dealer. 


That said, when I auditioned the A3s, there were a few classical guitar pieces, and a soundtrack of closely-recorded woodwinds and brass, that sounded phenomenal through the A3s!   But then, those tracks tend to make most speakers sound good.  But I did leave thinking "those speakers are going to make lots of happy audiophiles."

May I ask what electronics were driving the A3?

I'm afraid I can't remember.  It was a solid state amp of some sort, that the dealer was praising and thought a good match for the A3.  I just remember that it was more powerful than the amp I use at home.

@prof 

*Post removed* just below mine.
Let me guess: a certain well known magico-fan-boy who swoops in to every thread where someone said anything less than positive about magico ;-)

You mean every time YOU have something bad to say, which is basically every post involving the mention of Magico. AND you still can’t manage to articulate what it is you didn’t like (It was all good but my foot bla bla bla...BS). Heck you have such a vivid memory of your audition, you can't even remember what electronics were used? Like I said before, you are a fiction writer. For someone who is so busy (...constantly recording real life sounds) and talented (I play piano/synth, guitar (acoustic/electric), bass...) you sure seems to have a lot of time on your hand (almost 2000 posts with an average of 500 words). Are you sure you're not locked up in a cell somewhere 😉

LOL, the Magico-didn't-sound-perfect-to-me bat signal went up and
the frothing dog has been released for a run to snap at the heels of evil-magico-dissers!

Are you paid by Magico sciencecop, or do you do this pro bono?


Now that you have that off your chest, can you let the adults who are in control of their emotions discuss our impressions of speakers we've heard? 


@mheinz,

 I always survey the amplification to compare it to mine and see if it seems a reasonable choice for the speaker in question.  But once that is satisfied, I simply concentrate on the sound, not taking notes of all the associated equipment.   I had auditioned a great many speakers over that year and could hardly remember every bit of electronics associated with every audition.  I couldn't tell you every amp used in auditioning the Devore, or Joseph speakers, or many others.  


If you look at my "Contemplating Devore" thread where I reported my impressions of auditioning many speakers, you'll see I praised the A3 for various traits.  They truly do sound amazingly low in coloration, especially lack of "box" effects, the way they produce instruments so cleanly and even hard-panned sounds don't "stick" in to the speaker, but float in a distinct position around it.  Very impressive!   If the A3 can sound even better than what I'd heard, with different equipment, that's great.  I simply comment on what I heard during my own audition, which is what forums like this are for; exchanging notes, seeing various reports and impressions of various gear.  I don't doubt your A3s sound awesome.

Cheers!