John Atkinson introduced me to English engineer Laurence Dickie, who was sharing our ride up the elevators to the 34th floor of the Venetian Hotel. Mr. Dickie is a well-known loudspeaker designer, responsible for the original B&W 800 and B&W Nautilus loudspeaker designs, and as well as the cute little Blue Room Minipods, and is now creating new products for South African company Vivid from his design studio in Brighton, England. "Dick," as he is known to his friends, designed the G1 flagship for Vivid, which retails now for $65,000/pair and was being demonstrated in the Convergence Audio suite with, among other things, the piano recordings John Atkinson made and wrote about in the February issue’s “As We See It.” Laurence is shown here with the smaller G2, which was being
demmed in the Halcro room and so impressed Erick Lichte.
Compared to the flagship G1, the Vivid G2 is smaller, and costs slightly less at a suggested retail of $55,000/pair. A 5-driver, 4-way system, the G2 is 80% of the height of the G1 at 5' and half the internal volume of the bigger speaker. The cabinet features the same exponentially tapered-tube absorber for its two C175 short-coil, long-gap bass drivers and has multi-component automotive finish. The G2's sensitivity is specified as 88dB/2.83V.1m and the frequency range is specified at 29Hz to 33kHz.
The G2's sound was highly detailed and the bass was strong. Its more comfortable dimensions compared with the G1 will make it easier to insert into the decor of apartments in Manhattan and Hong Kong—it will definitely be favored by reviewers who look kindly on smaller loudspeakers that are easier to move around and adjust!
