Help picking a diamond - too many choices

[pulseczar]

Hi all!

I''m going to be proposing pretty soon, so the deadline for picking out a ring is rapidly approaching. Thanks to reading up on the topic here, I know basically what I want, but there are way too many diamonds available online that fit my criteria and I really can''t tell them apart, as I''m still very much a novice at all this.

Here''s what I''m looking for:
Size: at least .7 carats.
Shape: Round.
Cut: as good as I can afford.
Clarity: anything that looks clear to the naked eye is fine; for peace of mind, I''m tending toward at least VS2.
Color: similar to clarity - if it looks white, I''m happy, but for safety''s sake looking at H and up.
Price: Not too far over 3k for the diamond and the setting; the setting I''m eyeing runs about $600 at JA.

Searching JA with those criteria yields dozens of rings that seem more or less identical to me, with some variation in price. How do I go about figuring out which one to choose? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Todd Gray]

You can narrow down the list of possibilities considerably by restricting your search to the following parameters:

Total depth between 59 - 61.8%
Table diameter between 53 - 57%
Crown angle between 34.3 - 34.8 degrees
Offset by pavilion angle between 40.6 - 40.9 degrees
Girdle: thin to slightly thick, faceted or polished
Polish: AGS Ideal or GIA Excellent
Symmetry: AGS Ideal or GIA Excellent

Now this is a really tight range, but it will effectively narrow down the list of options considerably and dramatically increase your odds of selecting a vibrant diamond...

Once the list is narrowed down, review the ASET, Ideal Scope, H&A images and/or post them here on the forum for comment.

 

[stone-cold11]

This one looks good to me.

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/G-VS2-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1255575.asp

 

[ct-appr]

My advice, for what it is worth, is to put as much of your budget into the stone as possible. It is easy to buy a new mounting when the $$ is there but once you buy the diamond, you are committed. I recommend H or better color, SI1 clarity (there will be inclusions but they will be minor), don''t skimp on cut - the cut is the most critical to the beauty of the stone. Then just buy the biggest you can get for your budget. Also, stick to stones with GIA or AGS reports.

 

[pulseczar]

Stone-cold: It also looks good to me. However, it''s outside some of the ranges that Todd mentioned. I assume those ranges would just restrict to diamonds that would come in under a 2 score on the HCA, which this one also does?

 

[Stephan]

Other one:
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/H-VS1-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1238139.asp

 

[Stephan]

Bigger one:
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/H-VS1-Premium-Cut-Round-Diamond-1253507.asp

 

[Stephan]

Smaller one:
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/F-VS2-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1242707.asp

 

[Stephan]

Last one!
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/F-VS1-Premium-Cut-Round-Diamond-1242506.asp

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 8/19/2009 11:24:44 PM
Author: pulseczar
Stone-cold: It also looks good to me. However, it''s outside some of the ranges that Todd mentioned. I assume those ranges would just restrict to diamonds that would come in under a 2 score on the HCA, which this one also does?

This is a nice diamond SC picked out, Todd''s ranges are as he said tight so if you want to play it very safe then stick to those parameters, with the diamond above although the angles are a little steeper it shows no leakage on IS which is the important thing so no reason to not consider this one of you like it.

 

[Todd Gray]

Date: 8/19/2009 11:24:44 PM
Author: pulseczar
Stone-cold: It also looks good to me. However, it''s outside some of the ranges that Todd mentioned. I assume those ranges would just restrict to diamonds that would come in under a 2 score on the HCA, which this one also does?

As I stated, the range which I specified is "really tight" and the reason is because it dramatically increases the rate of success selecting a round brilliant ideal cut diamond "off paper" HOWEVER it should be noted that other combinations of crown / pavilion angle do work quite well, but it takes a little more experience to know what is a good offset for what and I was trying to make things easy... Generally (if you''re not going to stick to the range I specified above) I find that a slightly steep crown angle is offset well by a slightly shallow pavilion angle; and a shallow crown angle is offset well by a pavilion angle which is slightly steep... However I am personally not fond of the visual performance that I see in diamonds with a pavilion angle steeper than 41.0 degrees, so I personally wouldn''t select something like a 41.1 or 41.2 degree pavilion angle offset with a shallow crown angle such as 34.0 degrees because I''m simply not a fan of the visual performance that I''ve seen over and over again with diamonds with those measurements... But I''ve seen many beautiful diamonds with slightly tighter measurements even when they do not fall within the very tight range that I specified above.

The nice thing about the diamond market is that there is a plethora of advice and many different levels of cut quality readily available to cater to your needs regardless of where your preference falls in the scale of of optical precision... The trick is to take the time to do a little research, learn about diamonds, and decide what level of precision and visual performance is a good balance for your expectations of carat weight, color, clarity and price.