Making of Giya

Vivid Design Ethos

Freedom from Resonance and Reflection
Why is this so important?
It may be a matter of Life and Death!
How has this philosophy been manifested in the
current range?

Vivid Audio Dome Drivers

Catenary Dome Profile with
Carbon Fibre Ring to push first
break-up frequency up by over
50%

Tapered Tube Loading to

absorb rear output without
reflections

Vivid Audio Cone Drivers

Highly Ventilated Former to

relieve pressure behind
central dome without
reflections or cavity
resonance
Enhanced Radial Magnet to
increase flux for high
efficiency

Enclosure Isolation and Reaction cancelling

Reaction Cancelling Drivers

Reaction Cancelling Ports

Both features prevent transmission of vibration to enclosure

90% Open Area Chassis design

Chassis designed with slim but deep radial support struts to allow free
passage of rear wave while still presenting large area of metal for good
heatsinking.

All these features found

in first Vivid products;
B1 and K1.
Drivers used in C1 and
V series

May 2006 - First vision of GIYA

G1 to be top of our
existing range
Target volume 180litre, twice the volume of K1
4-way design
New 225mm cone bass
driver front & back

August 2006 - a setback

A Wooden prototype was built
but low crossover causes
difficulty with Front & Back
driver
Improvement observed with
side facing drivers in prototype
Design clearly not suited to
established Vivid shape

A new beginning
The K1 shape wasnt suitable
so we decided to start from a
blank sheet
G1 was to be the flagship with
no design link to the existing
range
We even considered a fully
active design with subresonance Low Frequency
enclosure (right) but decided
to stay with a more generally
acceptable reflex loading and
passive crossover

G1 gave us an opportunity to reconsider all

aspects. Were there any improvements we could
make on our already established drive units?
C125; Established as high excursion bass in full range
systems was re-optimised for upper bass only which
requires smaller linear travel. New magnet designed with
shorter gap and higher flux and new exponential tube
enclosure
D50; high efficiency and very smooth response through
mid-range no change required
D26; smooth extended high frequency response, and
high efficiency no change required

Vivid 8 Aluminium tweeter (green) vs. 4

diamond showing extra 9dB power efficiency

New C225 bass unit featuring 225mm aluminium

cone. Radial magnet system with 75mm coil and
highly perforated former. Open chassis structure
with high efficiency thermal design

Just one part had escaped close scrutiny:

the bass enclosure
Could anything be done to improve
acoustics of a plain box?
Was it possible to combine the
benefits of the highly effective
exponential tube absorber with
reflex loading without
compromising either?
Perhaps if horn cut-off was higher
than port tuning we would get the
best of both worlds.
Experiment performed with old
parts from archives (right) showed
promise.
Set up computer model to see
whats happening.

Square box shows strong longitudinal eigentones but good port output.
Added damping reduces strength of resonances but also stifles port
output. Example is for 15 driver in 200litre enclosure.

Long horn ( cut-off frequency below port tuning) annihilates box

resonances but severely compromises port performance. Still 200litre
total volume.

Increasing horn cutoff frequency helps. Here it is twice that of port

tuning and total volume of enclosure is still 200litres.

Increasing horn cutoff to four times port tuning frequency gives full port
output but still without longitudinal resonances. First section of horn can
be replaced by parallel sides without affecting performance.

Test setup showing horn added to original wooden prototype

Measured results of prototype test setup.

Without horn there is a
strong 180Hz resonance
corresponding to height
of cabinet.
With horn added to top of
enclosure this is virtually
eliminated. Remaining
modes are lateral and out
of band for 200Hz crossover

So how were we going to incorporate this acoustic design into the final
product? It deserved to be a visible feature and at first opted to make it
fully symmetrical. This is a typical AutoCad work sheet showing
attempts to marry aesthetic spiral with acoustic requirements.

 Result then modelled in

3D using SolidWorks
(right)
Dual spiral quickly
rejected on aesthetic
grounds
Design consultant,
George Elphick, suggests
asymmetric enclosure
with bass near ground

 First sketches in
collaboration with Chris
Stevens showing tightly
coiled absorber
Rapidly tapered horn proved
difficult to marry visually
with large enclosure
Hole was added to increase
the visual weight of spiral.
First signs of double spiral
ridge make their appearance

Sprial ridge causes 3D modelling headache so the essence of form

distilled into sketch below and sent out as challenge CAD suppliers.
The result prompted a switch to Rhinoceros for all future modelling.

First proof of concept in CAD, Feb 2007

New modelling technique devised to

accurately guide shaping
Difficulty experienced
keeping CAD visual model
acoustically accurate
Tapered form made in
modelling material
Basic form can then be
moulded while retaining
taper dimensions

Examples of early Plasticine models

Final choice of Plasticine model to work from

Curves extracted from model

Importing curves into CAD to start modelling

Evolution of 3D CAD model

Choice for first GIYA prototype, June 2007

Prototype made in GRP and tested at the

VIVID factory in 4 and 2 space

Work continues through late 2007 to improve surface

quality and to enlarge mid/high driver baffle.

Prototype re-machined to test new baffle design

 Prototype taken right

through to highly
finished stage
Crossover optimised
through simulation and
listening
By November 2007 the
decision was made to
show the prototype at
CES 2008 in Las Vegas

Giya unveiled at Mirage Hotel CES Las Vegas Jan. 2008

Final production design January 2008

Design moved forward to production

Tooling models extracted
from CAD model
Inserts for drivers, ports
and removable base
modelled

Master Pattern Production

Block machined with CNC process

Surface finish applied

GRP mould tool taken from master and

prepared for vacuum infusion

Finished Giya in
Lamborghini
Orange for our
Korean distributor