Floorstanding loudspeakers — Vivid GIYA G1 SPIRIT

The Vivid Audio Giya G1 Spirit is a four-way floorstanding speaker designed by Laurence Dickie, the engineer behind the B&W Nautilus, who became Vivid's engineering director in 2004. It sits above the original Giya G1 and looks much like it, but the cabinet is deeper and shorter, keeping the same internal volume while bringing the tweeter down to average seated ear height. Vivid makes its own drivers and cabinets, most of them in Durban, South Africa.

Key specs that matter

Five drivers cover four ways. A D26 26 mm metal dome tweeter and a D50 50 mm metal dome upper midrange sit above a C125-75 125 mm alloy-carbon lower midrange with a 75 mm voice coil, and two C225-100 225 mm alloy woofers have 100 mm voice coils working in a 45 mm gap. The crossover points are 220 Hz, 880 Hz and 3.5 kHz. Response spans 29 Hz to 33 kHz within 2 dB, with the -6 dB points at 25 Hz and 36 kHz. Sensitivity is 92 dB at 2.83 V/1 m, impedance is 6 ohms nominal with a 3 ohm minimum, and music power handling is 1600 W. Each tower is 1600 mm tall, 440 mm wide and 820 mm deep and weighs 67.4 kg with the crossover fitted inside.

Engineering and use context

Vivid builds the cabinet as a sandwich of glass-reinforced skins over a balsa wood core with internal bracing, and its curved shape avoids flat panels and sharp baffle edges. Each driver is loaded by an exponentially tapered tube that absorbs its rear wave. In the G1 Spirit the tubes for the domes are housed in the taller part of the cabinet, while the bass tube rises through the top loop and curls like a shell, a nod to the Nautilus. Unlike the Nautilus, the bass section is reflex loaded, and the two woofers face opposite ways so that their reaction forces cancel. The lower midrange unit was reworked with carbon hoops and a larger 75 mm coil, moving its first break-up beyond 10 kHz. The fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley crossover uses air-core OFC inductors, polypropylene capacitors and point-to-point wiring. It can also be housed in a separate box connected by an eight-way cable, an arrangement that allows four-way active amplification. Finishes include gloss black, Lexus pearl white and a matte oyster tone.

Pairing

High sensitivity means the G1 Spirit plays loud on moderate power, but the low impedance minimum needs an amplifier able to supply current comfortably. The power handling leaves headroom for large rooms and powerful amplification.

Alternatives

Vivid Audio's Giya G2 is the smaller four-way floorstander of the Giya range.