At just over a quarter of the volume of the G1, G3 is the latest Vivid Audio loudspeaker in which the bass chamber resonances have been eliminated by the combination of ported enclosure with a precisely shaped tube. Again this exponentially tapered absorber sweeps over the top of the cabinet to give one of the most distinctive loudspeakers ever created. But in G3 the engineering concealed within this visually striking feature goes further, for it actually contains two exponentially tapered tubes back-to-back, with the second being attached to the rear of the low mid-range driver where it presents a perfectly behaved, resonance-free load.

The new design details do not end there, as a result of the diminutive size of G3, a new approach to the configuration of the system was required to maintain the tweeter height at about 1m from the ground. Now the loop formed by the bass and mid-range absorber is also spanned by the two exponential tubes loading the rear of the upper mid-range and high frequency dome drivers with their matched taper.

The foundation of any multi-way loudspeaker lies in the low frequency band. It is the characteristics of this section which set the levels against which the rest of the system will be aligned. Careful balancing of the size of the enclosure, the tuning and the all-important bass driver specification is required to produce a system with good efficiency while preserving the dynamics, frequency and time response. Our holistic approach to low frequency system alignment allows Vivid Audio great
freedom with the bass driver design and, despite the reduced enclosure volume, permitted the use of the same 75mm motor system as the C225 featuring an enormous transduction factor yet resulting in a system free of the typical boomy bass which can result. We are proud to be able to announce the new
C135 bass unit which uses ultra-long-throw suspensions together with a matching radially polarised magnet structure for an exceptional linear excursion capability. Coupled with the now familiar Vivid Audio heat-dissipating chassis design, these bass units have an unprecedented margin between thermal power handling and acoustic output meaning the lowest power compression factor of any design to date. These drivers will produce sustained output power levels without showing any signs of distress for indefinite periods of time. But a bass driver design is not only about the low frequency end; it must also reproduce the high frequency part of the band without break-up or distortion and the C135 easily achieves this with a 30% improvement in frequency of the first top-end mode.

Further up the range in all three mid and high frequency bands, the driver compliment is identical to that of G1 and G2 offering the same essential qualities of effortless transparency with absolutely no compromise in specification required to conform to the smaller enclosure size.

The care taken with our driver design and the smoothly shaped external contours of the cabinet all help to give an intrinsically smooth response so when it comes to the crossover filter design it is simply a matter of division of the frequency bands rather than compensating for the shortcomings of the drivers which can so often be the case. Handmade and hard-wired, the crossover construction has been proved to offer superior sonic transparency when compared to the machine-made printed circuit-based commercial alternatives employed by most.