John Marks has posted a review of the Vivid 1.5 stand-mounted loudspeakers ($7650) in his Fifth Element column at Stereophile. He also shares his impressions of the new Cardas Clear interconnects and loudspeaker cables. His conclusions:
Now that I've heard the V1.5, I can readily believe that Vivid's G1Giya is the best loudspeaker Wes Phillips has ever heard. In my system as described, the V1.5 is the best two-way speaker I have heard, as well as the best speaker under $10,000/pair. Rather than concentrate on its limitations in scale, loudness, and bass, just think of the V1.5 as the BBC LS3/5A concept raised to the nth power. With real bass.
I'm not ready to go all Herbert von Karajan on you and claim that, after the Vivid V1.5, "all else is gaslight," as HvK said of digital sound the first time he heard it. But the game has been changed, perhaps even more by the $7650/pair V1.5 than by the $65,000/pair G1Giya.
You can read the full review here.
