Stereophile Review Of Vivid K1

By John Marks • Posted: Oct 10, 2012

I’ve had Vivid Audio’s Oval K1 loudspeaker here for several months. Over many years, the only other speaker brands I’ve written about as much as I have Vivid have been Wilson Benesch and Shahinian Acoustics, whose speakers I still revere and can recommend without reservation—to the right listener. But Vivid’s high-tech sorcery has raised the bar. The Vivids I’ve had here are among the best loudspeakers I’ve ever heard, and that’s a consensus that seems headed in the direction of critical mass… …When I listened to Annar Follesø’s SACD of Ole Bull’s violin concertos, with Ole Kristian Ruud conducting the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (SACD/CD and Blu-ray, 2L 67), played on the Luxman D-05 universal player, the way Follesø’s violin “decoupled” from the midrange drivers and the tweeters to float in space reminded me of recent generations of Quad electrostatic loudspeakers… The Vivid Oval K1 is one of my absolute favorite loudspeakers ever, joining the very short list of Harbeth’s P3ESR, Wilson Benesch’s A.C.T. (ca 1997), and the Shahinian’s original Obelisk and Diapason… <more>