And now, for one of the most talked about rooms in Vegas. On A Higher Note's presentation in the Mirage Penthouse wasn't for the timid audiophiles, but the true music loving, hi-fi fans who feel a nice glass of wine goes perfectly with concert-level volumes and earth-shattering dynamics. I should know, I spent more time in the Vivid Penthouse than any other room at Vegas.

The new Vivid Giya speakers (Roughly $54k) were on everyone's list, in no small part due to the proliferation of our SonicFlare coverage. I ran into French photographers, talk radio pundits and a variety of unusual personalities from the far reaches of audiophilia sitting in the shadow of the Giyas. Everyone had to see the twirling carbon fiber speakers and play critic about their looks and sound.

Unfortunately, despite being in the room on numerous occasions, I didn't have a chance to listen to my own mega mix. The room was consistently packed with people who came for the critical listening. The Vivid demo featured a reel-to-reel machine playing new tapes by The Tape Project that sounded, simply, out of this world. These ungodly good recordings did, no doubt, cast the Vivid/Luxman setup in the best possible light, but discerning the true nature of the components and speakers was nearly impossible.

That said, the big rig sounded fantastic and I have no doubt the sound fits with the Vivid/Luxman sound I heard about at RMAF and raved over accordingly.

One track that did get massive play was Yello's Planet Dada. This track's bass energy, as we've already talked about, is unbelievable. Laurance Dickie, designer of the Vivid speakers, built a number of custom pro rigs for DJ buddies after leaving his gig at B&W designing their premium Nautilus. While in the pro world, Dickie developed his signature short coil, long gap drivers with output suitable for dance clubs. Each Giyas' double 11" woofers put out so much bass down low -- while keeping the rest of the frequency clear -- it was terrifying (in the best way possible).

In fact, as Danny mentioned, during one spirited demo, two embedded lights in the ceiling fell out. Dangling like busted eyeballs, main man Philip O'Hanlon decided it was time to dial it back a bit.

TECH TALK:
The way the Giyas produce so much clean, clear bass while keeping the volume at standard listening levels is, in part, the the big twirl up top. After Laurance Dickie and I finished talking about Europe, camping and Burning Man, I pinned him down on what in the name of all that is good and holy the twirl actually does. SImply, the twirl creates near-zero cabinet coloration while amplifying the bass to epic levels.

Philip forwarded me the patent application for the Giya loading system with corresponding charts and the twirl, based on the numbers, sends the back bass wave down this long, tapered funnel which, in turn, allows deeper, cleaner bass at lower power than a vented or sealed design with the same internal volume. The Giya does sport ports which, if you look closely, hug the bass drivers much like intake vents on a Porsche. This unusual porting combined with a massively long, tapered cabinet, allows the bass goes deeper and louder than most any other design with double woofers.

Additionally, the woofers on opposite sides of the cabinets are mechanically coupled -- meaning, they are attached via the magnets and, through special a O-ring design, function without vibrating the cabinet. When playing at tremendous levels, the cabinet barely affects the mid and high drivers which are, themselves, isolated from the rest of the cabinet via the O-ring design.

And the tech only starts there. I had a chance to peek at the crossover while Laurance was switching cables. Get this -- the crossover is a triple decker design. Three roughly 6" by 8" crossover boards are stacked on top of each other at the bottom of the cabinet. Truly a work of genius/madness.

The complete setup included the new Luxman B-1000f super class-A monoblock amps, the C-1000f preamp, Weiss digital CD player and, as previously mentioned, The Tape Project's custom reel-to-reel and media. Cable by Shunyata, racks by Still Points.

If you're in Los Angeles, the Giyas will be appearing at The Digital Ear for the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society get together come Sunday, Feb 24th from 2-5pm. Visit here for more details. The SonicFlare posse will be there so drop on by and say "hi."