The inspiration for this one carat round diamond buying guide is from the following client inquiry: “Hey Todd, love the website, I’d like to take advantage of your Diamond Concierge Service, because this whole process of shopping for an engagement ring, is turning out to be a bit overwhelming, and the effects are rippling out into other areas of my life!”
“I’m looking for a one carat round diamond engagement ring, with VS-1 clarity, F-color, and no fluorescence. I know that you’ll zero in on the proportions and that your primary focus is on diamond cut quality.”
“However, I’m not so sure where to draw the line in terms of what we’ll be able to see between the differences in sparkle exhibited by Hearts and Arrows diamonds, or just straight GIA Triple Excellent or AGS Ideal diamonds.”
You are absolutely correct that I will “zero in on the proportions” and that my primary focus is on diamond cut quality. That is because the combination of diamond proportions that are well within the middle of the spectrum is designated as the range for the zero ideal cut proportions rating.
Combined with the degree of precision required to create a crisp and complete pattern of hearts and arrows in a round brilliant cut diamond, will result in the highest volume of light return and sparkle which is bolder, brighter, and more vivid. As compared with the sparkle exhibited by a round brilliant cut diamond of the same proportions, which exhibits a lesser degree of optical symmetry.
Will the average person be able to distinguish the difference in light return and visual performance between a GIA Excellent or AGS Ideal cut diamond that exhibits a standard degree of optical symmetry, and one which exhibits the higher degree of optical symmetry necessary to produce a crisp and complete hearts and arrows pattern? It depends on your sense of vision and sensitivity to performance.
The difference in the volume of light return, visual performance, and sparkle factor is certainly something which many of my clients have been able to ascertain, once I showed them the difference between standard GIA Excellent and AGS Ideal-0 “ideal cut diamonds” and diamonds with the same proportions, which exhibit crisp and complete patterns of hearts and arrows.
Those clients usually describe the “Hearts and Arrows diamonds” as being brighter, whiter, more brilliant, and exhibiting sparkle which seems to be more vivid; which makes sense because hearts and arrows diamonds tend to exhibit a higher number of virtual facets, which increases the volume of light return, and creates more sparkle.
With all of this in mind, let’s look at some one-carat round diamond engagement rings, that are F-color, VS-1 clarity, with negligible fluorescence that meet my selection criteria, with the understanding that some will be Hearts and Arrows, and others will be straight ideal cut diamonds, and it will be up to you to decide what level of visual performance is right for your preferences and budget.
Brian Gavin Signature Hearts & Arrows review: AGS 104074030063
This 1.117 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, Brian Gavin Signature round diamond is definitely my pick of the litter! This diamond has an overall cut grade of AGS Ideal-0; the pavilion angle of 40.8 degrees is going to provide a high volume of light return. At the same time, the 34.7 degree crown angle provides a virtual balance of brilliance (white sparkle) and dispersion (colored sparkle).
The 78% lower girdle facets provide the broad spectrum sparkle that I crave! And the precision performance delivered by that crisp and complete pattern of hearts and arrows? Well to quote the Beetles: “Baby you can drive my car; Yes I’m gonna be a star; Baby you can drive my car; And maybe I love you; Beep beep’m beep beep yeah!”
One thing that I want you to pay particular attention to is the consistency of the hearts shapes pictured above. They are uniform in shape, and consistent in spacing. The gaps between the tips of the hearts and the arrowheads located beneath them are even.
The hearts are not bleeding into the arrowheads. The tips of the hearts are not bending in one direction or the other. There are no significant splits in the clefts of the hearts. And the hearts look like hearts, they don’t look like lawn darts. As I’ve been seeing on so many “hearts and arrows diamonds” lately, which aren’t actually “Hearts & Arrows diamonds” by my standards.
Unlike the majority of diamonds which I’m going to review below, this 1.117 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, Brian Gavin Signature round diamond is graded by the American Gem Society Laboratory, on their Light Performance-based grading platform.
That relies on Angular Spectrum Evaluation Technology (ASET) to measure diamonds for brightness, and determine how effectively the diamond is making use of the light which is available to it from within the room.
The ASET uses the colors red, green, and blue to represent different intensities of brightness and contrast. It uses the tones black and white to indicate light leakage.
Each color is used to represent a different range or angle of light as is available from that range of the earth’s hemisphere. Specifically, the color red is used to represent light that strikes the diamond from perpendicular to the table facet, up to forty-five degrees.
Thus the color red represents the brightest range of light available to the diamond and these sections of the diamond will be more brilliant, you definitely want to see lots of red in the ASET scan of any diamond that you are considering, because it means that the diamond is going to be nice and bright!
The color green represents the second brightest light, which strikes the diamond from 45° out to the edge of the horizon; note that I am clearly stating that green represents the second brightest light which is striking the diamond; I am not saying that this region of the diamond will be less bright, and this can be a confusing concept to people when they are trying to interpret the ASET image. While the areas colored green represent areas that are less bright.
The color blue on an ASET image is used to represent the contrast that results from our heads blocking light from entering the diamond, this helps to create the static contrast that makes extremely well-cut diamonds such as this, appear to be sparkling in lighting situations where diamonds that exhibit a lesser degree of static contrast might not otherwise sparkle, such as in typical office environments where fluorescent lighting is used.
The high degree of static contrast exhibited by Brian Gavin Signature round diamonds, which results from a combination of the proportions and the overall degree of optical symmetry that is necessary to create a crisp and complete pattern of symmetrical hearts and arrows, is one of the factors that make his diamonds stand out above the rest, the sparkle factor is simply off the charts, and that is why I recommend his production so highly.
Crafted by Infinity H&A diamond review: AGS 104065076002
This 1.118 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, Crafted by Infinity round diamond also has an overall cut grade of AGS Ideal-0, the ASET image provided on the Diamond Quality Document (DQD) issued by the AGS Laboratory looks pretty fantastic.
I’m confident that the diamond exhibits a high volume of light return, with a virtual balance of brilliance and dispersion, and broad-spectrum sparkle. The 34.1 degree crown angle is a good offset for the 40.9 degree pavilion angle and the diamond has lower girdle facets that average 75% in length.
As a former authorized dealer for Crafted by Infinity, I’m extremely familiar with the production quality of their diamonds, and I’ve yet to see one that didn’t knock my socks off, but I’m not loving the precision of the hearts pattern as it is portrayed in the photograph provided below. So how can this possibly be a hearts and arrows diamond?
I’m confident that this1.118 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, Crafted by Infinity round diamond exhibits a crisp and complete pattern of hearts and arrows, because Paul Slegers of Crafted by Infinity, and Wink from High-Performance Diamonds, assure me that it does… and actually I trust their ability to make that call, because they are well-known experts in the niche market of hearts and arrows diamonds; but they had a sucky photographer back when this beautiful diamond was photographed, and I was actually begging them at the time to fire the putz!
If I had to guess, and believe me, it’s an educated guess because I have photographed thousands of hearts and arrows diamonds… the problem with the hearts pattern below has nothing to do with the diamond, but rather it’s because the diamond is skewed (off-center) on the platform which is being used to hold it in place while it is being photographed; this is a known issue for CBI diamonds photographed prior to stock #6600.
Imagine for a moment, that the black spot located in the middle of the diamond, where the tips of the arrowheads come swirling together, is the pivot point on which the diamond is resting on within the plastic tray that is holding the diamond in-place; now tap the plastic tray a couple of times with the tip of your index finger, just enough so that it settles properly into the hole that is designed to hold it in place while it is being photographed… this might make it so that the diamond doesn’t look like it is tilting up and to the right in the photograph pictured above. In other words, the axis point of the diamond would settle into the center position, and the right side of the diamond would move up a smidge.
And that slight fraction of a millimeter is probably all that hearts pattern needs to line itself right up with the camera lens that is positioned above it… then we could say something like “Good photographer! Good boy! Now snap the picture correctly… Doh!”
Of course it is much easier to photograph hearts and arrows diamonds correctly, because it is much easier to line up the top of the diamond to the camera lens, than it is to actually cut these puppies so that they exhibit a crisp and complete pattern of hearts and arrows, so I truly appreciate the effort that Paul Slegers puts forth creating these wonderful, amazing looking diamonds!
But I hate having to explain away the apparent imperfections within a hearts and arrows image, because I know that some dealers are going to try and use as similar explanation as to why their not-so-great hearts patterns look bad, when they actually look bad because the diamonds reflect a lesser degree of optical symmetry than this Crafted by Infinity diamond does when viewed through a hearts and arrows scope… so I bust Crafted by Infinity in the chops about this on a fairly regular basis, and they’re promising to do something about it, which would make me very, very happy! But in the meantime, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy this diamond, I have every assurance that it is stunning and that it meets my expectations for hearts and arrows.
Blue Nile vs Enchanted Diamonds reviews on GIA 1189337173
This 1.10 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round from Enchanted Diamonds, has an overall cut grade of GIA Excellent and they gave it a Cut Score of 100% based upon the proportions of the diamond and the overall cut grade assigned by the GIA for polish, symmetry, and proportions.
All right, so about that… the diamond has a pavilion angle of 40.8 degrees, with a crown angle of 35.0 degrees, with lower girdle facets that average 75% thus I’m pretty confident that it is going to deliver a high volume of light return with a virtual balance of brilliance and dispersion with broad-spectrum sparkle; but we don’t have any reflector scope images by which to judge the degree of optical symmetry.
So what is the Enchanted Diamonds cut score of 100% based upon? Proportions… Polish… Symmetry… because these are the only factors that are taken into account by the majority of the diamond industry and the only things that the average diamond buyer knows to look for.
The only people who focus on diamond cut quality, optical symmetry, ASET scope images, Ideal Scope images, and Hearts & Arrows patterns, are the select few of us who specialize in the 0.001% of round brilliant cut diamonds that fall into the super ideal cut classification.
Now Enchanted Diamonds isn’t going to be upset by the fact that I’m pointing out the limitations of their internal cut grade system, and they’re not going to ask me not to write about their diamonds online; because they know that not everybody needs or wants to pay for the superior cut quality of a hearts and arrows diamond; they know that the vast majority of my readers are probably going to be perfectly happy with a diamond like this, which represents the Top 1% of the annual production for round brilliant cut diamonds.
Likewise, Blue Nile is not going to be upset that I’m going to point out that this same 1.10 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round diamond is also available from Blue Nile, but that they have it priced at $9,581.00 which is approximately three hundred dollars more than Enchanted Diamonds, because they know that price is not the only factor by which you’re going to decide where to purchase a diamond… And they know that you’re probably smart enough to ask them to price match the diamond if you find it somewhere else cheaper.
Dealers like Blue Nile recognize that you’re going to buy the diamond from whichever dealer you are most comfortable with, if you happen to like what I say about it, and possibly even if you don’t agree with my opinion, you might buy it because it just makes sense to you. It’s almost as if these other companies, realize that you have a brain, that you’re capable of thinking for yourself, and reaching your own conclusions based upon your interpretation of the characteristics of the diamonds represented.
So this 1.10 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round from Enchanted Diamonds probably isn’t “hearts and arrows” but the odds are that it is still going to sparkle like crazy, so whether you buy it from Enchanted Diamonds, or you buy this 1.10 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round diamond from Blue Nile, you’re going to come out looking like a hero!
Blue Nile vs Enchanted Diamonds reviews on GIA 5186377080
Now if you happen to be looking for a matched pair of diamonds for 2 carat total weight diamond stud earrings, this 1.10 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round from Enchanted Diamonds, which also has an overall cut grade of GIA Excellent, would make an excellent match for the other 1.10 carat diamond that I reviewed above. Once again, this same 1.10 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round diamond is also available from Blue Nile. However, they have it priced at $9,581.00 which is approximately three hundred dollars higher than what Enchanted Diamonds is selling it for. And once again, Blue Nile isn’t going to be upset with me for pointing that out, they recognize that it’s my job to help you get the best deal.
Once again, we’ve got a pavilion angle of 40.8 degrees, which is offset by a crown angle of 35.0 degrees, with lower girdle facets that measure 75% which means what? That’s right! This 1.10 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round from Enchanted Diamonds should exhibit a high volume of light return, with a virtual balance of brilliance and dispersion, and broad-spectrum sparkle!
We’ve got no way to judge the degree of optical symmetry exhibited by this diamond, because neither vendor is providing photographs of the diamonds as seen through an ASET Scope, Ideal Scope, or Hearts and Arrows Scope; but we do know that the diamond is easily within the Top 1% of the annual production for round brilliant cut diamonds, and maybe that’s good enough.
Blue Nile Signature diamond review: GIA 5163880617
This 1.12 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, Blue Nile Signature round diamond has an overall cut grade of GIA Excellent and is accompanied by the supplementary GCAL diamond grading report that is pictured to the left. The diamond has a pavilion angle of 40.8 degrees, which is offset by a crown angle of 34.5 degrees, with a total depth of 61.2% and a table diameter of 57% with a medium, faceted girdle and no culet; which makes it like a classic Tolkowky cut diamond, but this does not mean that it’s a hearts and arrows diamond.
The only way for us to determine whether this 1.12 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, Blue Nile Signature round diamond exhibits a crisp and complete pattern of hearts and arrows, is to look at the diamond through a Hearts & Arrows scope; the proportions are only one piece of the puzzle, the degree of optical symmetry also has to be there.
And the really frustrating part about this, is that I know for a fact that GCAL has the capability of determining whether diamonds are hearts and arrows or not, they have the capability of putting hearts and arrows images on the GCAL reports that they issue for Blue Nile, but it costs extra; and it makes it easier for people like me, to help you figure out whether a diamond does, or does not exhibit hearts and arrows.
Suffice to say that if you really want a true hearts and arrows quality diamond, then I recommend sticking with either Brian Gavin Signature round diamonds, or Crafted by Infinity diamonds, or perhaps even James Allen True Hearts diamonds; with the obvious understanding that you’ll need to look at the hearts and arrows images provided, and determine whether the consistency of the pattern is good enough for you or not.
And do you think that Blue Nile is going to be upset with me for pointing this out to you? It’s doubtful because they’re not trying to tap into the niche market of Hearts and Arrows diamonds, it’s too small of a market share to be a really good fit for their business model.
Blue Nile also isn’t going to be upset that I’m going to point out to you that this diamond is likely to exhibit smaller, pin-fire type sparkle, because of the 80% lower girdle facet length, because that’s simply a characteristic of the diamond, and there are tons of people who prefer pin-fire type sparkle as opposed to the broad spectrum sparkle that I happen to prefer in a diamond… all I’m doing is pointing out the characteristics of these diamonds, and providing you with insight about how they are likely to affect the visual performance of the diamond, so that you can select the best option for your preferences. Isn’t that an amazing concept?
Enchanted Diamonds vs Blue Nile: GIA 5186691234
This 1.16 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round from Enchanted Diamonds has an overall cut grade of GIA Excellent and is selling for $9,000.00 which is “just a little bit less” than the same 1.16 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round diamond is being offered for on Blue Nile which has it listed at $9,803.00 (yes, that was ‘just a little bit’ of sarcasm).
The diamond has a total depth of 61.2% with a table diameter of 58% and a pavilion angle of 40.8 degrees, which is offset by a crown angle of 35.0 degrees, with a thin to slightly thick, faceted girdle and no culet; the diamond has 75 % lower girdle facets, so we know that it’s going to exhibit the type of broad-spectrum sparkle that I prefer in a diamond.
Blue Nile round diamond review: GIA 2135249676
This 1.19 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round diamond from Blue Nile has an overall cut grade of GIA Excellent, and the proportions of the diamond look promising.
The diamond has a pavilion angle of 40.8 degrees which is offset by a crown angle of 34.5 degrees, with lower girdle facets that average 75% which means that it is going to produce a high volume of light return, with a virtual balance of brilliance and dispersion, with broad-spectrum sparkle!
Once again, this is a textbook version of a diamond with Tolkowsky ideal cut proportions, and that combined with GIA Excellent polish and symmetry makes for an excellent choice! You really can’t go wrong with this or any other one of the diamonds that I’ve reviewed on this page, and this is what’s cool about my Diamond Concierge Service, it takes the guesswork out of buying a top-performing diamond!
Ritani GIA Triple Excellent diamond review: GIA 1189421698
This 1.12 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round diamond from Ritani, has an overall cut grade of GIA Excellent, which people tend to refer to as “GIA 3X” or “GIA Triple Excellent” cut, it is the highest rating available from the GIA for overall cut quality. This diamond has a pavilion angle of 40.6 degrees which is offset by a crown angle of 34.5 degrees, which is going to give it a high volume of light return with a virtual balance of brilliance and dispersion. However, the 80% lower girdle facet length is likely to give the diamond pin-fire type sparkle.
And while it’s not necessarily my thing, a lot of my clients seem to like diamonds that exhibit pin-fire type sparkle, because it gives the diamond a kind of crushed-ice disco ball sparkle type of effect; however it does so at the cost of dispersion which is colored sparkle, because when the white light reflected by the facets of a diamond become too small, our human eyes have difficulty dispersing them into colored flashes of light; and thus diamonds like this can appear to be more brilliant than exhibit a balance of brilliance and dispersion, even when the proportions are optimized to create that sort of balance.
James Allen round ideal cut diamond review:
This 1.174 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round ideal cut diamond from James Allen, has an overall cut grade of AGS Ideal-0, as determined under the guidelines of the Light Performance grading platform, which as you know provides insight into how the diamond is making use of the light which is available to it in the room.
This diamond has a pavilion angle of 41.0 degrees, which is one-tenth of a degree beyond my preferred range of 40.6 – 40.9 degrees, so it’s still a contender in my book; and the crown angle of 34.6 degrees is going to provide the balance of brilliance and dispersion that I look for; while the 76% lower girdle facets are going to produce broad-spectrum sparkle. One of the advantages that is provided by the ASET image provided on AGS Diamond Quality Documents, is that we can use it to judge the degree of optical symmetry exhibited by the diamond.
In this particular instance, the ASET image provided on the Diamond Quality Document for this 1.174 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, round ideal cut diamond from James Allen leads me to believe that the indexing of the facets might be off a little bit, this is an indication that the degree of Optical Symmetry for this “ideal cut diamond” is less precise than the options presented previously from the inventories of Brian Gavin and Crafted by Infinity, which are graded on the same Light Performance grading platform that is proprietary to the American Gem Society Laboratory.
To verify this, all we have to do is zoom in on the portion of the lab report that contains the ASET image, at which point you’ll be able to clearly see that the tip of the blue arrow that is located in the relative two o’clock position is tilting downward.
It also appears that the arrow shaft is broken; and this pattern repeats to a lesser degree throughout the stone. Now take note of the green blotch that appears directly across from it in the eight o’clock region of the ASET image.
Given the fact that the arrow in the two o’clock position is the reflection of the pavilion main located in the eight o’clock region, do you think there might be a correlation? Don’t think about it too hard, it’s a redundant question.
So why was this diamond given an overall cut grade of AGS Ideal-0? How did it get a Symmetry grade of AGS Ideal? In the same way this diamond would likely have received an overall cut grade of GIA Excellent, with a GIA Symmetry grade of Excellent.
That’s because the “Symmetry” grade reflected on diamond grading reports is for “meet point symmetry” which is based upon how precisely the points of the facets “meet” at the junction points of the facets; whereas what we’re seeing is a matter of “Optical Symmetry” which is not graded by the gemological laboratories, but is judged by diamond buyers such as myself who specialize in diamonds of extremely fine make, by using reflector scopes such as the Hearts & Arrows Scope, Ideal Scope, and ASET Scope.
But this diamond is still within the Top 1% of the annual production for round brilliant cut diamonds, and that’s the thing to be aware of… there are different levels of “ideal cut diamonds” and the question that you have to answer for yourself is “what degree of perfection is right for me?”
The value of brands like Brian Gavin and Crafted by Infinity:
If you’re looking for the absolute very best, then I strongly recommend that you stay within the inventory of Brian Gavin Signature Diamonds, or the super ideal cut diamonds Crafted by Infinity, as I consider the production of these two companies to be Tier One, bar none; I’m not aware of any other diamond dealer online who offers the same level of consistency in terms of the degree of optical symmetry and overall production quality.
Quite often people tell me that they’re looking for a diamond that exhibits the best light return and the most sparkle, which means that I’m going to refer them to Brian Gavin or Crafted by Infinity, it really is that simple; because I’ve been buying diamonds from these two companies for years, and I am extremely familiar with their product quality and know exactly what to expect in terms of the volume of light return, brilliance, dispersion, and scintillation.
So I make a couple of recommendations, and most of the time people end up buying those diamonds. However, there is usually some banter back and forth about some other less expensive diamonds that have been recommended to them by other people who provide diamond buying advice; the problem is that the vast majority of those people don’t have any real diamond buying experience; thus they are merely recommending diamonds that fit the basic selection criteria provided by the client (that’s you).
And I’m happy to look over those options for you, but they rarely meet my selection criteria, or if they meet my criteria for diamond proportions, they don’t exhibit good enough optical symmetry to be classified as “the best” and they don’t fit my definition of diamonds that exhibit the best light return and the most sparkle… so I explain the Pro’s and Con’s of the diamonds presented, and sometimes my clients decide that those diamonds are “good enough” but most of the time, they end up buying the Brian Gavin Signature diamond, or Crafted by Infinity diamond recommended to begin with; but with the new understanding of why those diamonds cost more, which is largely because they take about four times longer to produce due to the precision required to produce the crisp and complete pattern of hearts and arrows.
And a better understanding of why GIA Excellent or other AGS Ideal-0 cut diamonds which seemed to be comparable at first glance, are actually miles apart in terms of overall diamond cut quality, due to differences in the degree of optical symmetry, and the difference in the volume of light return and sparkle factor that results from it.
The viable realm of GIA Excellent Cut Diamonds:
Now the reality is that not everybody wants or needs the very best when it comes to diamond performance, there are plenty of people who are perfectly happy with GIA Excellent and AGS Ideal-0 cut diamonds that are simply in the Top 1% of the annual production for round brilliant cut diamonds, they’re not looking for the very best, they don’t need a diamond that is within the Top 0.001% of round brilliant cut diamonds, they don’t need an exceptionally fine-tuned, turbocharged Porsche, or a Lamborghini, they’re perfectly happy with a stock Porsche that is fresh off the production line, and that’s where dealers like Enchanted Diamonds, who offers an exceptional selection of GIA Excellent cut diamonds, with a few zero ideal cut diamonds scattered about that are graded by the AGSL, becomes an important resource for my more price conscious clients.
Jonathan and Joshua of Enchanted Diamonds have worked closely with me to step up their game to create a strong online presence, and they are beginning to provide more in-depth diamond details; they’ve just introduced Sarin Light Performance reports on a lot of the diamonds in their inventory, and they’re obviously doing what they can to beat Blue Nile on price; but not every diamond listed on Blue Nile is available from Enchanted Diamonds, because each dealer has various agreements which give them the exclusive right to list certain diamonds online; which is not to say that they can’t source the same diamonds if you ask them to do so, simply that they have the exclusive right to list them for sale publicly.
In terms of which dealer offers the most extensive inventory of virtual diamonds, Blue Nile is The Source of Brilliance, they’ve got the lock on the exclusive listing rights to more diamonds than any dealer I know, and the Blue Nile Build Your Own Ring program features a lot of very nice designs, and if you get in touch with me before ordering, I might have a coupon code that will save you 15% off the price of up to two wedding bands ordered at the same time as the engagement ring if you use the Blue Nile Build Your Own Ring feature.
Now I’ve also got coupon codes for savings on rings from Brian Gavin, High-Performance Diamonds, and Enchanted Diamonds, I’m just not allowed to publish any of them, so drop me a note via my Diamond Concierge Service if you plan on buying from any of them, and I’ll shoot you off a code.
James Allen True Hearts Diamonds can be absolutely stunning, provided that the proportions are within my preferred range of selection criteria, as outlined in the article One Minute Diamond Buying Guide, and so can their zero ideal cut diamonds; but I have to be honest and say that a good portion of the diamonds do not meet my expectations in terms of what a crisp and complete pattern of hearts and arrows is supposed to look like based upon my experience which lies in the realm of grading standards set by the Japanese in the late 1990s.
However there are a fair number of James Allen True Hearts Diamonds and ideal cut diamonds, which do meet my expectations, so it’s definitely worth a look; I put James Allen in the same class as Blue Nile, Enchanted Diamonds, Good Old Gold, Ritani, Whiteflash, Zoara, and other dealers who offer a broad selection of diamonds in different cut qualities in order to attract diamond buyers whose primary focus might be on price, which means that you really have to know what you’re doing to choose a top-performing diamond… no big surprise there, right?
Of course, you can use my free Diamond Concierge Service to help select the best diamond for your needs, you can even take advantage of it if you are buying from your local jewelry store, or an online diamond dealer who is not listed here, just send me a link to the diamond details page, or the GIA or AGS diamond grading report number, and as much detail as you can provide; but if you are simply looking to buy the best-cut diamond possible and don’t want to fret about it, go with the 1.117 carat, F-color, VS-1 clarity, Brian Gavin Signature round diamond that I recommended at the top of the page, it’s my worry-free pick of the litter from this group!
