I just thought this might be useful to new buyers.
My initial aim was to buy the biggest carat, no tint, eye clean diamond I could get. Initially I had a 36.3/41.2 57.5/63.2 on hold (HCA 5.4). I came here, was given the usual advice regarding superideals and cut etc.
I used the cheat sheet and bought the cheapest largest stone I saw that seemed clean enough with ideal specs. I'm colour sensitive so stuck to >= H but this G happened to be available at the time for similar prices to H/Si2s.
After looking at lots of stones in B&M I was quite happy that the inclusions in the video would be OK with me. JA confirmed it was eyeclean from the top.
Superideals were out of my budget with the carat I was after (~1.3) and although diamond prices have slightly dropped since then, the £ also got a lot weaker, so just as well.
On a short time scale, no time to wait for idealscopes, I bought: http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-dia...-g-color-si2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-528685
I am extremely pleased with its performance. I can JUST about see the inclusion to the right under the table (but it took about a year of looking at the diamond repeatedly to start to find it. I generally can't find it without a loup first, once I've located it and tilt it just the right way, I notice an extremely small spot. My wife certainly can't spot it still) so would still define it as eyeclean for most.
Despite being pleased with it, the irony is, the more stones I looked at and hanging around PS, the more I realised I wouldn't have given at this stone a second look if I was looking fresh based on the video.
It's not a flattering video. There appears to be lots of obstruction, problems with optical symmetry, two arrows slightly washed out, and different sizes. What would a superideal have looked like? These questions started to pester me.
I took the stone to several stores and compared to HoF stones. I could not see a visual difference, in fact, in bright spot lighting, in some circumstances, there was increased scintillation and fire. A few friends bought superideals and I could not see any lesser performance. It's a nice bright white fiery diamond.
Eventually I had to see scope images and so acquired an ASET and IS (I did struggle to take good shots with just the phone camera, so apologise about the tilt)
Is it H&A? Quite clearly not. Now with some more experience and lots of careful examination compared to HoF stones, possibly the arrows don't light up simultaneously as easily on very slow direct comparison, but it does light up in a slightly different no less pleasing manner. These are extremely subtle findings! I'm very happy with the scope images.
I sort of did everything in reverse, as I learnt more here, the more I wasn't happy with the stone despite loving it in person, which is ridiculous, until I saw the scope images (!)
The point of the story is that this is a good example of an non H&A stone with great light performance, that we've enjoyed for nearly two years. It's the upper range of the budget ($7400 before wire discount), that let me hit a size I couldn't have if I was buying superideal. I've compared and am delighted with its performance on its own and in comparison.
Ignoring the clarity issues people may have with it; if I was buying today, with more experience, and I'd make the same decision every time, I would have skipped over it due to perceived faults in the video, which is a real shame. Although I've learnt so much more, I would have missed out on this stone; so I must ask myself, with all the new knowledge, have I progressed or regressed in selecting a beautiful diamond?!
In summary, it's easy to get caught up too much with mind clean aspects here, you might miss out on something great otherwise.
Do look at lots of stones in real life so you can calibrate your tolerances for colour and clarity when buying online.
My initial aim was to buy the biggest carat, no tint, eye clean diamond I could get. Initially I had a 36.3/41.2 57.5/63.2 on hold (HCA 5.4). I came here, was given the usual advice regarding superideals and cut etc.
I used the cheat sheet and bought the cheapest largest stone I saw that seemed clean enough with ideal specs. I'm colour sensitive so stuck to >= H but this G happened to be available at the time for similar prices to H/Si2s.
After looking at lots of stones in B&M I was quite happy that the inclusions in the video would be OK with me. JA confirmed it was eyeclean from the top.
Superideals were out of my budget with the carat I was after (~1.3) and although diamond prices have slightly dropped since then, the £ also got a lot weaker, so just as well.
On a short time scale, no time to wait for idealscopes, I bought: http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-dia...-g-color-si2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-528685
I am extremely pleased with its performance. I can JUST about see the inclusion to the right under the table (but it took about a year of looking at the diamond repeatedly to start to find it. I generally can't find it without a loup first, once I've located it and tilt it just the right way, I notice an extremely small spot. My wife certainly can't spot it still) so would still define it as eyeclean for most.
Despite being pleased with it, the irony is, the more stones I looked at and hanging around PS, the more I realised I wouldn't have given at this stone a second look if I was looking fresh based on the video.
It's not a flattering video. There appears to be lots of obstruction, problems with optical symmetry, two arrows slightly washed out, and different sizes. What would a superideal have looked like? These questions started to pester me.
I took the stone to several stores and compared to HoF stones. I could not see a visual difference, in fact, in bright spot lighting, in some circumstances, there was increased scintillation and fire. A few friends bought superideals and I could not see any lesser performance. It's a nice bright white fiery diamond.
Eventually I had to see scope images and so acquired an ASET and IS (I did struggle to take good shots with just the phone camera, so apologise about the tilt)
Is it H&A? Quite clearly not. Now with some more experience and lots of careful examination compared to HoF stones, possibly the arrows don't light up simultaneously as easily on very slow direct comparison, but it does light up in a slightly different no less pleasing manner. These are extremely subtle findings! I'm very happy with the scope images.
I sort of did everything in reverse, as I learnt more here, the more I wasn't happy with the stone despite loving it in person, which is ridiculous, until I saw the scope images (!)
The point of the story is that this is a good example of an non H&A stone with great light performance, that we've enjoyed for nearly two years. It's the upper range of the budget ($7400 before wire discount), that let me hit a size I couldn't have if I was buying superideal. I've compared and am delighted with its performance on its own and in comparison.
Ignoring the clarity issues people may have with it; if I was buying today, with more experience, and I'd make the same decision every time, I would have skipped over it due to perceived faults in the video, which is a real shame. Although I've learnt so much more, I would have missed out on this stone; so I must ask myself, with all the new knowledge, have I progressed or regressed in selecting a beautiful diamond?!
In summary, it's easy to get caught up too much with mind clean aspects here, you might miss out on something great otherwise.
Do look at lots of stones in real life so you can calibrate your tolerances for colour and clarity when buying online.
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