T+A Talis S 330 vs. Vivid Kaya 45: A Year of Living with Two Loudspeaker Philosophies

Here’s a myth worth busting: expensive loudspeakers don’t converge on a singular “accurate” sound. As if any of us could know what accurate sounded like. We cannot. And it’s not just me saying this. Steve Guttenberg has said as much, and – more importantly – storied loudspeaker designer Andrew Jones has made the same observation. Jones’s opinion on loudspeaker design carries far more weight than mine, Guttenberg’s, or any wannabe comments section maverick. As budget constraints fall away, loudspeakers don’t gradually morph into some platonic ideal. They diverge. They express their designers’ philosophies more fully, not less. Case in point: the T+A Talis S 330 and Vivid Kaya 45, which sell for €12,500 and €18,600 respectively. Why can’t we know what “accurate” sounds like? Start with the obvious: we weren’t present at the original recording session. Even if we had been, the microphone placement, how those mic feeds were mixed, and the associated mastering choices would have shaped the final sound far beyond what any two ears could have heard standing in the theatre or the recording studio. And increasingly, that theatre or recording studio doesn’t exist. Most modern records are assembled from dozens of separate takes, recorded in different spaces, and copied and pasted together in a DAW. There is no singular “live event” to which any hi-fi component can be accurate. The recording is the performance. Alas, the notion of “accuracy” is a memetic myth. It perpetuates because it makes some audiofolk feel good: telling themselves (and others!) that they own “accurate” loudspeakers provides a degree of mental or emotional stability. An anchor point in a sea of uncertainty where the number of unexplored options dwarfs the total of all direct experiences. This reminds us that hi-fi is more about behavioural psychology than, say, the divisive and entirely false dichotomy of “100% objective” versus “subjective” analysis, but I digress… The T+A Talis S 330 from Germany and the Vivid Audio Kaya 45 (designed in the UK, built in South Africa) have dominated my Berlin listening room for the past year. Both are floorstanders. Both implement three-way designs with four drivers and 4 Ohm nominal impedance. There’s only 2dB between their sensitivities: 87dB for the German and 89dB for the Brit / South African. And that’s where the similarities end. I mean, just look at them. Aluminium meets Barbapapa The T+A is a traditional-looking loudspeaker. Handsome, even. The Vivid looks like it escaped from a 1970s French cartoon about shapeshifting blob creatures. Laurence Dickie’s cabinet designs have always divided rooms, and the Kaya 45 is no exception. Those organic curves aren’t just aesthetic provocation. They’re functional. The Vivid uses a glass-reinforced Soric-cored sandwich composite that creates immense stiffness without the mass. The Kaya 45 weighs just 25kg. That’s light for a loudspeaker of this size. T+A’s Siggi Amft has built the S 330’s cabinet entirely from solid aluminium, extruded and machined into a U-shaped profile that’s incredibly rigid. At 33kg, you’ll know about it when you’re manoeuvring them into position. Dickie told me in a podcast interview that a heavy cabinet isn’t necessary with force-cancelling bass drivers in play. The Vivid’s side-firing woofers cancel each other’s reactive forces, which explains how such a light enclosure can manage powerful bass energy. The manufacturing philosophies differ, too. Vivid Audio loudspeakers are hand-built in South Africa, where the company makes every component in-house: drivers, composite cabinets, crossovers, the lot. T+A loudspeakers are engineered and assembled in Germany, using proprietary drivers designed in Herford (often built by specialised European partners). Amft told me via email, “The Talis are assembled in our factory in Herford.” Two designers, six priorities I emailed both designers – Dickie and Amft – to ask about three specific features they felt were most important to the engineering of their respective loudspeaker models. Laurence Dickie emphasised energy management and assembly complexity: The Kaya 45 uses three tapered tube absorbers (Vivid calls them ‘Exponential Absorbers’) to dissipate rear-wave energy from the drivers. Each driver uses a radial magnet topology requiring fully magnetised magnets before assembly, which is apparently labour-intensive. Each driver is mechanically decoupled from the main enclosure using soft silicone o-rings to prevent vibration transfer. Siggi Amft focused on cabinet geometry and material science. He highlighted the following: The Organic Baffle: it’s relatively slim with rounded corners and edges that control dispersion. The aluminium cabinet allows such a compact loudspeaker to achieve the structural integrity needed for deep bass. The mid- and bass drivers use embossed diaphragms for rigidity, and the tweeter is coated with magnesium. Two approaches. Both valid. Neither converging on the other. But I wouldn’t dream of entertaining the presence of these loudspeakers (especially at these price points) without room treatments in place. Acoustic panels fitted to our walls and ceiling allow us to hear more of what the loudspeaker is doing without the room running interference with resonance and reverb. And readers are reminded that spending €10,000 on acoustic panels and their installation, and then €8,000 on loudspeakers, will yield a much better-sounding result than dropping the Kaya 45 or Talis S 330 into an acoustically untreated room. At least, that’s my experience. A year of side-by-side comparisons I didn’t make a playlist for this review because it’s been a year-long listening process. A year of doing side-by-side comparisons in between all the other gear passing through. Throughout 2025, I used these two floorstanders with amplifiers from Technics, Luxman, Mola Mola, Marantz and Rotel. But for the past three months, I’ve stuck with just two integrateds: the Marantz Model 10 and the Rotel Michi X2 S2. The Class D Marantz delivers 500wpc into 4 Ohms; the Class A/B Rotel hits 350wpc. Yes, 4 Ohm nominal loudspeakers can dip to 2.8 Ohms, but I experienced zero issues with either amplifier driving either the Vivid or the T+A. As this was a year-long on-and-off assignment, I will paint my opinion with broad brush strokes. But first, a qualifier: I’m not saying that anything goes with loudspeaker design because it doesn’t. Bass boosted to the moon is unpleasant to listen to. As is an overly insistent top end. What I am saying is that loudspeaker designers working close enough to a ‘flat’ or a ‘slowly descending’ target curve have room to express their own priorities. It’s why no two loudspeakers sound identical. But how close is ‘close enough’ and who decides? Both of these loudspeakers come from exceptionally experienced engineers. They deliver no obvious audible flaws. Whatever we hear from either the T+A or the Vivid will be close enough to what was heard in the recording studio, the mixing room or even the mastering suite to make us uncertain as to which presentation is closer to “the truth”. Both are close enough to whatever “accurate” might mean that we cannot know which one is closest. For example, the Kaya 45 is the airier-sounding of the two in the uppermost treble. They communicate more recording space information than the T+A. You can really hear this on Blixa Bargeld’s EP of four Bowie covers. But the Vivid is also the drier-sounding of the two. That makes them the better dance partner for the warmer, more rounded sound of the Rotel Michi amplifier. Is the Kaya 45’s treble presentation more “accurate” than the Talis S 330’s? I have no way of knowing. (And neither do you). The T+A can sound a little too “humid” with the Rotel. But under Marantz’s command, they really open up, especially in the mids. Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush’s “Don’t Give Up” reveals an obvious liquidity that extends across the frequency range. Is this midrange liquidity closer to “accurate”? Again, I cannot say. (And neither can you). The T+A reaches deeper and kicks harder than the Vivid, particularly in the low bass. Lee Scratch Perry and Dubblestandart’s electronic dub spills from the Talis S 330 with proper weight. It’s the kind of sound that moves air in the room rather than just suggesting the presence of sub-bass. The spec sheets explain part of the why: the T+A reaches down to 25Hz via its rear-firing port; the Kaya 45 gets to 37Hz. Which bass response is more “accurate” to whatever Lee Scratch Perry heard in the studio? I wasn’t there…and neither were you. I’ve never been unhappy with the bass the Vivid delivers. It’s as dynamic-sounding as the T+A. It simply doesn’t go as deep. And one facet of the Talis S 330 I particularly enjoy is its more dynamically expressive midrange. Vocals have a presence and elastic energy that the drier Kaya 45 presents with greater stand-offishness. It’s not worse or better, just different. And neither is more “accurate” because that word has no meaning in this context. The verdict that isn’t These are the two best-sounding loudspeakers I’ve experienced to date in my Berlin space. And even though I think the Talis S 330 has the edge for my sonic tastes, I don’t for a moment think it is the more accurate of the two. I can easily see how someone else might prefer the sound of the Kaya 45. Me? I prefer the look of the Kaya 45. Dickie’s more unusual approach to cabinet design and their airier sound is why I’ve kept his Kaya S12 standmount around for so long. I’ve yet to hear another standmount that bests it. And no, the far costlier Wilson Tune Tot does not. However, both require a subwoofer to approach the level of performance we get from these two floorstanders. But the reason you saw the T+A in the background of more videos last year is that I enjoy their sound ever so slightly more than the bigger Vivid. Not by much. But enough to comment on. A pricing twist For Eurotrash like me, the T+A is a convincingly better buy at €12,500 versus the Vivid’s €18,600. Six thousand euros is real money: enough for a serious amplifier upgrade, a year’s worth of vinyl, or a solid round of room treatment. But there’s a twist in this tale: in the USA, both loudspeaker models sell for around US$18,000/pair. American buyers face a very different decision: same price, different philosophies, divergent sounds. Which brings us back to where we came in. High-end loudspeakers don’t converge on a single sound. They express their designers’ intent. And what the T+A Talis S 330 and Vivid Kaya 45 express couldn’t be more different: in their construction, in their appearance and in their sound. Neither is more “accurate” than the other. How could I possibly know? How could you? Both of them sound superb, and only your room, your amplifier, your music and your eyes will have the final say.