To Doug Schneider,
I just finished reading your review of the Vivid Audio Giya G2s for the third time and am getting very close to pulling the trigger on a pair. It's funny because I have been very happy with my B&W 802 Diamonds and, as usual, I was wondering what the next step would look like. Liking B&W naturally led me to Laurence Dickie and the Giyas, which really does seem like the next step. I have an opportunity for a good deal on a demo pair. Believe it or not, my hesitation is not the money, but rather the risk -- I am only willing to give up something very good for something great. Everything I have read, especially your review, tells me this is a good move. Unfortunately, it's not feasible for me to demo a pair at my house with my gear. My biggest fear is getting something that sounds too bright, sharp, and fatiguing. My 802 Diamonds initially sounded that way until I was able to tame the tweeters with a heavier tweeter screen and got them positioned right. Anyway, if there are any relevant thoughts you have concerning this speaker change, I would love to hear them. Would you make this change if you could? Do you think I would lose the warmth and musicality I have? Any chance the G2s would sound fatiguing in my setup? Thanks.
Adam
United States
Frankly, there’s no way that I can predict that you’ll like the speakers as much as I did, or that you’ll think that it’s a night-and-day improvement over your 802 Diamonds because, to my ears, the two designs sound very, very different. That’s why the prudent thing for me to do is advise you to audition them yourself -- but I already know from your e-mail that’s not possible. So instead I will say this: When I reviewed the Giya G2s in early 2012, I said it was the best speaker I’d ever heard. In the two-and-a-half years that have passed since then, that hasn’t changed -- it’s still the best speaker I’ve ever heard, by quite a large margin. I even like it more than their more-expensive Giya G1, because it is taller and, for me at least, puts the tweeter a little too high. I also like the G2 quite a bit more than the really expensive speakers I’ve reviewed in my listening room and have heard at shows. As a result, if I had a huge sum of money to spend on a pair of speakers, there’s no question that a pair of Giya G2s is exactly what I’d buy. Should you? That’s now for you to decide. But if you do, please write back and tell me what you think of them. . . . Doug Schneider
