SoundStage! Global | SoundStageGlobal.com - Vivid Audio Giya G4

Have You Seen?

Introduced at the 2013 Tokyo International Audio Show (November 2-4, 2013)

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Vivid Audio Giya G4 Loudspeaker; Created: 06 November 2013

I've written quite a bit about the design details of Vivid Audio's Giya G4 in the previous articles in this series, but not about the sound, which is the focus of this final article. I was privy to the first presentation of the G4 at TIAS 2013, and I managed to sneak in early enough to snag a front-row, center-position seat. Vivid's chief designer, Laurence Dickie, was in charge of the presentation.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Vivid Audio Giya G4 Loudspeaker; Created: 03 November 2013

Tell Laurence Dickie that you don't like the look of his loudspeakers and, believe it or not, he'll be OK with that. Conversely, tell him that you like them and he'll simply tell you that he's happy to hear that you share a similar "aesthetic appreciation" for form. So he's good both ways. But tell him that you think the styling is simply for show, and he's bound to speak up. He might even get a little angry.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Vivid Audio Giya G4 Loudspeaker; Created: 02 November 2013

Like the other Giya models, the G4 is a five-driver, four-way design housed in a swooping, uniquely styled enclosure -- some will say "crazy looking." And all the Giya hallmarks are there, including tapered-tube loading on drivers, even on the woofers, to dissipate the rearward-directed energy from the diaphragm; dual, force-canceling side-firing woofers for maximum bass output and minimum resonance; and a cabinet constructed from a combination of fiberglass and balsa. As with all Vivid models, the drivers are effectively detached from the cabinet by an O-ring mounting technique, which greatly reduces energy transferred from them to the cabinet walls as opposed to if they were bolted straight on. All in all, cutting-edge stuff.

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Vivid Audio Giya G4 Loudspeaker; Created: 02 November 2013

Vivid Audio's owners, Phillip Guttentag and Laurence Dickie, are the first to admit that the success of their Giya G3 loudspeaker took them by complete surprise. They knew that some customers wanted a smaller Giya than the middle-range G2 or flagship G1; they just didn't know there were going to be that many. Guttentag, who oversees the operations of the company's factory in South Africa, was in Tokyo for the annual Tokyo International Audio Show (TIAS), and he told me, "I can't tell you for certain right now if more G3s have been sold than G1s in both their lifetimes, but right now we sell more G3s than anything -- by far."