Verity, Vivid Audio, Abbington, American Acoustic Development, Avalon Acoustics

Powered by Nagra electronics, the three-way, floorstanding, WATT/Puppy-like Verity Audio Sarastro 2 ($40k)–with 12-inch woofer (in its own ported enclosure), and a 5-inch midrange and Verity’s own ribbon tweeter (in an enclosure of their own)–also showed very well, making Baez’s voice and guitar on “Gospel Shipâ€? sound beautiful, if not particularly “you-are-thereâ€? real. Though a bit smaller in size and more forward than I’m used to, Heifetz’s violin and Brooks Smith’s piano also sounded lovely. I’d have to say that this was the best I’ve heard Verity speakers sound at a trade show.

 

At first glance, I thought the four-way Vivid Audio G1 Giya loudspeaker ($54k) was a B&W Nautilus clone, with its gorgeous hand-layered-fiberglass cabinet, capped with a curl like the girl in the nursery rhyme. Little did I know that the G1 was engineered by Lawrence Dickie, the same guy who designed the Nautilus for B&W! The little curl on top turned out to be an exponential tube to load the aluminum-domed tweeter, which Vivid makes in its own facilities. (Indeed, Vivid makes all the drivers used in the G1.) The Giya was very neutral on voice, with a nice sense of delicacy on Baez’s “House Carpenter.� I did think that the center image was canted a bit to the right (undoubtedly a room or set-up problem) and that the G1 was a bit better on voice than it was on guitar, which it reproduced with more body than string. I heard the same slight image wander on Chris Isaak’s “Dangerous Game,� and the same (perhaps room-induced) touch of lower midrange/mid-to-upper bass thickness, which slightly obscured the ostinato of the Fender bass.

The Abbington Music Research LS-77 Professional Monitor ($13.5k) is a two-way with an “iso-planarâ€? tweeter (a direct descendant of the legendary Decca “Voltâ€? tweeter) and a 10-inch Kapton mid/woof in an aluminum chassis. I heard a stacked pair, driven by AMR’s own electronics, and the sound was light and fast, with exceptional pace, rather like a Naim speaker–but less irritating. A little leanish in balance, the LS-77 was exceptionally open and clear on all the cuts I played, with a very good blend of planar tweet and cone woof.

The American Acoustic Development 7001i ($12.5k) is a stand-mount ribbon/cone-hybrid two-way with a 6-inch passive radiator on the back of its sealed box; it is intended primarily for studio-monitor use. Driven by Parasound electronics, it had a nice neutral midrange and very good detail. A little forward and nasal, it sounded very present on “Ghost Train,� although it lacked bass extension (as studio monitors tend to do).

The three-way floorstanding Avalon Acoustics Eidolon Diamond ($34k), with diamond tweet, ceramic midrange, and Nomex/Kevlar woofer, was being driven by Hovland electronics. On Marc Cohn’s “Ghost Train,� the Diamond sounded a bit smaller-than-life-sized but downright beautiful, with exquisite delicacy of timbre and dynamic. It was also supremely lovely-sounding on Guitar Gabriel’s “Keys to the Highway,� making the old man’s gravely voice sound very robust, sweet, and rich, albeit a little too “prettified.�

The Tidal Contriva ($14.9k), an all-ceramic-driver multiway floorstander powered by ASR electronics, reproduced Mario Lanza with superb focus, a nice sense of spatiality, and very good bloom. Although I detected a bit of strain on the fortissimos of the Cilea aria, the speaker never broke up. It had excellent bass extension and definition. Though the Contriva was quite neutral on voice and instruments, it was also a little bleached-sounding, forward, and polite, as ceramic-driver-equipped speakers (and ASR electronics) can sometimes sound.

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