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Millercarbon's Mega Moab Mod Meander

One of the all time great automotive engineers, Norbert Singer, was a key player in every one of the 16 Porsche LeMans victories from 1970 to 1998. His dominance was such that at one point Porsche had won LeMans more than all other marques combined. This was all accomplished by building on the already solid foundation of Porsche production models. The air cooled flat 12 in the 917 was really two flat sixes combined to make 12. This car so dominated motorsport the rules had to be changed to stop it!  

So Norbert Singer modified Porsche production technology to extract the absolute most for racing. His legacy is today’s Singer Vehicle Design https://singervehicledesign.com Norbert doesn’t make for a very good car name so they called it Singer. What is a Singer? It is a modified Porsche. It is in essence a hot rod. What Norbert Singer did was make the most hot rod racing Porsche. What Singer does is take that to the next level, capturing every aspect of Porsche right down to excellence of design and aesthetics.  

I am not anywhere near the level of Singer. But that is the spirit of what we are doing: taking an already world-class design and hot-rodding it to be even better. Well, better for me anyway- or so we hope!

The early modders started with substituting off the shelf parts to get more power or less weight. That is pretty much all we are doing here. Would be cool if some day people are doing this with a lot more sophisticated approach. Maybe they will. Maybe even I will. For now though we have the current crossover project.

My approach is pretty simple: better parts sound better.  

This lesson was learned back in the late 90’s with Linaeum Model 10 speakers. The designer had a new tweeter and told me how to modify the crossover for it. Simple mod, one cap, one resistor. Bought the parts from Radio Shack, put it together, sounded like crap. Absolute horrid crap! Called him up, he said those parts are crap. Said Musicap, Vishay. But they measure the same? Just do it. I did. It worked. Even though they measure exactly the same, the sound difference is off the charts.  

Even though they measure exactly the same. There is a lesson here. For those willing to learn.

So this is the essence of it: Eric Alexander has made a speaker the equivalent of a Porsche 911. Even better: an affordable Porsche 911! But after a while with my 911, after learning what makes it drive and feel the way it does, it was only natural to change the shocks and torsion bar and other items to bring out even more of what I like so much about the 911.  

That is what we are doing here. Hot-rodding a speaker. Thank you Rick for the metaphor!  

The parts are on order. Next week the fun begins!
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millercarbon OP
12,531 posts
 
With the Linaeum mod the difference was night and day. The kind of experience guaranteed to shatter anyone who thinks all you need are measurements. Granted, the difference was huge. I knew nothing back then and so bought a package of ten resistors for a dollar at Radio Shack. The caps were probably more like 5 for $2. Absolute crap.  

BUT think about it- this is exactly the same stuff you see inside the vast majority of components!  

The sound with Musicap and Vishay was so much more clean and clear and liquid it was mind-boggling. But then that was going from utter crap to very good. Not absolute best just very good.  

Knowing how much difference these things make, when Talon came out with the X crossover I went for that upgrade. This time the improvement was not as immense as before because we were starting from a higher level. Would be nice to know how high but the stock crossover was potted and glued in to where nothing was visible! Still, it was clear they used some pretty high quality parts, all point to point soldered direct to each other.  

So this will now be my third crossover upgrade, and by far the most ambitious. With the others the designers told me exactly what to do. With this one I already have the Upgrade Option crossover. There is no higher level to just order and connect like with Talon. So a fair amount of work has gone into figuring out what parts to use and how exactly to go about this.

Eric has done a really good job of building a crossover that is very much like the rest of the Moab, very high performance for the money. Still, there is a reason people like Encore and Ulf. There are always higher quality parts and those speakers make good use of them. That is basically what I am doing here, only focused on the crossover. The experience of hearing past crossover upgrades combined with the things I have learned doing this one has me thinking that as good as these things sound now they are gonna be even better- or else I sure wouldn't be going to this much trouble and expense!

mglik
888 posts
 
What Porsche do you have? When younger, I owned 4. A ‘78 SC Targa, ‘94 Carrara Cab, and 2 ‘90 C4 964s. Think my favorite was the SC. Although the C4s were land cruisers. Like a fast cat.
You have certainly made an incredible case for your Tectons.
As many, I wish they were better looking. But I do marketing for Tetra Speakers and own their $33k 606s.
I hope you are getting the input of Eric on the xover mods.
As you know, those are the most central element of a speaker. My designer at Tetra is brilliant at xover design. Even his entry level has the same “reality” as his top line. Herbie Hancock owns 7 pair of the entry level 120U. And a pair of my 606s in his studio.

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon OP
12,531 posts
 
'79 SC. Being a PCA Driving Instructor allowed me to drive a lot of different Porsches. One time I drove a Targa so exactly like my SC the only differences being Targa, and my SC had the 75 Carrera wing and chin spoiler. That is how I learned two things: those two aero bits have a huge effect on handling even at 60-70mph, and it is not for nothing they call the Targa "flexible flyer"! Terrific car, but oh the body flex!

Totally agree, the SC was a home run. Those cars back then, they could go very fast but only if you really knew how to drive them. It was a huge thrill largely because of that sense of being right on the edge, at the same time as the car was saying it was made to be right on the edge. Fantastic!

I tried, but Eric I think is way too busy to be consulting with modders. Also an unusually large proportion of what makes Tekton so good is a technology hardly anyone but him seems to understand. Compared to him everyone else is simply using higher quality more expensive parts. His technology is so advanced he is able to beat them with off the shelf and MDF. So he is not about to go giving that away by telling anyone exactly how to do it.

On the other hand like Rick said, this is like Porsche making a car so terrific guys want to use it as a base for making something already incredibly good even better. So it is in a way flattering to be in that category. But at the same time I can understand. Porsche is not about to go telling everyone all their aero secrets. They are happy to see people personalize and modify but the good stuff they keep to themselves.

In any case I am not at all looking to design anything. This is nothing more than the speaker equivalent of better tires, shocks, and K&N. Okay maybe I chipped it. lol!
glupson
7,842 posts
 
"The new Turbo gets more power AND glory out of a 3.7 flat 6 than Aston Martin squeezes out of a 4.0 twin turbo V8."

It all matters. Until you try.

By the way, 1979 Porsche 911 was a great car.

For 1979.

Tekton Moab, or any other model I suppose, is a great speaker.

For someone who likes it.


lawmnsuu
11 posts
 
Had a 1995 turbo. Last air cooled. Quite a ride but scary fast at 140mph with the front end beginning to feel squirrelly. 
Today a 2019 GT2RS which is so stable and secure at any speed it makes you feel accomplished even when you’re not. Perhaps the finest car I’ve ever owned and I’ve owned quite a few. 
Good luck with your tinkering. I’m looking forward to hear your accomplishments. 
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