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Vivid Audio unveils KAYA S12 standmount

  • October 2019. I was invited to Max Schlundt Kultur Technik, one of Berlin’s larger hi-fi stores, for a ‘first listen’ to the KAYA S12 from Vivid Audio. The pre-production sample was being toured around Vivid’s dealer network ahead of its official debut at the Warsaw AV Show a month later.

    This week, Vivid Audio has announced that the KAYA S12 has finally gone into UK-based production. The two-way standmount owes its Weebil-like shape to designer Laurence Dickie’s flair for creating less-conventional-looking loudspeakers; he lent Bowers & Wilkins’ US$60K Nautilus its striking appearance and Vivid’s own GIYA range is anything but vanilla.

    Max Schlundt Kultur Technik, October 2019.

    The KAYA S12’s physical form isn’t only the result of aesthetic considerations. The 12-litre RIMCast Polyurethane cabinet’s curves reduce edge diffraction and permit time-alignment of the D26 tweeter’s output to the C100D mid/bass driver. The cabinet also gives the tweeter a waveguide and, on the inside, accommodates an ‘exponentially tapered tube-loaded reflex’. Both drivers are designed and manufactured in house.

    However, the KAYA S12 is the first Vivid loudspeaker to implement the company’s new – and similarly patented – Omni-Absorber which, according to the press release, “annihilates the common distortion all other two-way monitor designs suffer from.”

    Max Schlundt Kultur Technik, October 2019.

    The Omni-Absorber’s inspiration was presented to me in Berlin by way of an iPhone photo of a 12-fingered piece that combines cavities of different (acoustic) properties. This ultimately led Laurence Dickie to develop a ribbed inner-shell for the Kaya S12 that would absorb internal resonances in a similar manner to the 12-fingered piece, all without compromising Kaya S12’s reflex port bass extension.

    The KAYA S12 will show any connected amplifier 87dB of efficiency and a nominal 8 Ohm load which, according to Vivid, bottoms out at 5.3 Ohms.

    The new model will be offered in a range of automotive finishes – Piano Black, Pearl White, Oyster Matte – for which pricing has been set at £5995/pair. Custom colours are available on request.

    Vivid Audio will also be offering suitably unconventional matching floor stands and wall mounts.

    Further information: Vivid Audio

    Written by John

    John currently lives in Berlin where he creates videos and podcasts for Darko.Audio. He has previously contributed to 6moons, TONEAudio, AudioStream and Stereophile.

    Darko.Audio is a member of EISA.

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