Millercarbon's Mega Moab Mod Meander

Was just being alliterative with the title but this really is mega! I've taken my whole panel apart, ripped out and hauled AC to cryo then put it all back, and a slew more big projects but this easily was the most I have ever done in one day. One 15 hour day, 6AM to 9PM! Twisting and soldering all those hard to get at connections- it doesn't put itself together let me tell you!

Even after all that it is not done, not really. But more than enough to use and I did, and you all expect more from me than emoticons so what am I hearing?

It was a shock at first but having two days and two nights sleep to let it all sink in... The first thing to hit me was a big improvement in instrumental tone and texture. Been playing Tracy Chapman a lot lately and so put that on first. There's a lot of deep bass and a huge amount of all different kinds of percussion- bongo's, drums - just a slew of different things, and they all sound so much very different, individual, unique, and separate in their own little space, it was blowing me away how the caps and stuff could be so good so fast. It was only after a nights sleep that I realized of course! Because: Townshend Pods! BDR! These things need zero warmup or break-in. They do this right from the get-go. 

Sure enough, all aspects of the presentation most affected by vibration control shot straight up to a new higher level and stayed there. This was a huge part of my initial impressions. How much better it could be externally mounted I can only imagine but Pods and BDR made a huge improvement without having to go to all that trouble.

As for the crossover itself, I'm hearing tremendous improvement in detail, dynamics, and imaging. The reason for all the cutesy emoticons is this all improved so much it really is hard to find words to do it justice. This is just a huge improvement, every bit as big as going from my old phono stage to Herron, or heck even from Talon Khorus to Tekton Moab.

There were a few moments early on when there was some pretty harsh glare or ringing, almost enough to get me worried. But it seemed to be one of those new parts settling down kind of things and sure enough it was less and less as time went on and pretty much totally disappeared by the end of the night.

Which was a very long night indeed. After working on this thing from 6 to 9 I was then up spinning vinyl until about 2AM. Found myself reaching for Hot Stampers early on. Very unlike myself. Never play these until the system is good and ready, and this had been off 2 days and barely warmed up. Still, the improvement was so great it sounded better than ever even pretty much stone cold. Amazing. 

I took the time to disassemble and measure all the individual values of the stock crossover and replace only with same value parts, as I did not want to make any changes to any of the magic Eric engineered into Moab. Just wanted to help the magic get out, so to speak. That seems to be the case as record after record takes on a life all its own. It sounds like I nailed the tonal balance Eric built into them, which is good, I did not want to change that at all. Doesn't sound like I did.

One reason I think the impact is so staggering, my system is tweaked to the max. The whole electrical panel is tweaked and treated. Every foot of wire from the panel to the room is cryo'd and coated and massaged. Inside the room the wire is all superb M101 Nova and Supernova and Townshend F1. Everything from the source to the amp to the speaker cables is tweaked out on BDR, Pods, and more. The signal is plush and pampered, until it gets to the Moab where it runs straight into ordinary wire and a bunch of parts on cardboard. Well not really cardboard, but whatever you call 1/8" thick MDF. Might as well be.

Yes, I know, the wire is still left. Always another project. Working on it, okay? Sheesh. 

That one is where we really start to get into Eric's magic. Lotta drivers, lotta wires, and not at all clear where they go. Tracing it all out in order to figure out what might be the best geometry is no small task. For sure it will be another huge upgrade- if done right. For sure it will be another huge effort- in order to do it right. 

This for now is enough. More than enough. Wow I wish you guys could hear what I'm hearing!

nmmusicman-
Caps and stuff are clearly and rapidly getting smoother, more relaxed, and more effortlessly detailed. The presentation changes a lot with the recording and can go from being further back and deeper to you are in it envelopment. So sometimes want to say it is a little more recessed or deeper, other times a little more forward. Last night playing Springsteen The Ghost of Tom Joad the Boss was a little further away but with much more realism, his guitar just eerily real, but then as the song goes along the accompanying instrumentals and volume grows and it feels the whole stage expands and envelops me. Some records like Tom Petty Southern Accents are like this from the beginning. So it feels like getting just a whole lot more of whatever is on the vinyl. And yeah it just keeps getting better and better. Early days still. Very promising.

nares- Yes indeed. Greatest effort yet. Probably biggest payoff yet too though. Tremendous sense of satisfaction.

klh007- Kemper, you were one of the key people motivating me to get Moab in the first place. So thanks for that! This was a huge project but more than half the time went into figuring out what parts to get and how to put them together. Now having done that you could copy my parts and put them on MDF on Nobsound springs and have a huge share of the improvement for a good bit less trouble and expense. Just sayin'. Anything you want to do, happy to help. Repay the favor so to speak.

parker65310- Not that I don't want to help, but you need to understand I know zip about crossover design. All I know is how the parts work, and even that on only a general level. All I did was swap out one cap for another better one, precisely because like you I did not want to lose the Tekton sound, just get more of it. Mission accomplished! To do this I mostly studied this http://www.humblehomemadehifi.com/Cap.html in order to choose the right caps. Study this info, look up the caps prices on-line, figure out what suits your budget and space requirements.

What little I do know, caps roll off or attenuate low frequencies. Changing the cap value, different microfarads, moves the crossover points. You absolutely do not want to do this! Better caps are always physically larger, they take up more space and may not fit. But while physically larger they must be the same value or you will change the sound you like so much. PM if you have questions, but honestly there are way more experienced guys than me. 

ricevs- Interesting point about inductors. Eric went outside to inside. Not that that means anything. In my case, to go inside to outside would be very hard to do without adding wire. As it stands everything is soldered lead to lead. It is interesting though because it raises the question of directionality. I wonder if the results you got could simply be due to directionality? 

The 12AWG Goertz coils in mine are wound so tight they feel like a chunk of solid copper. Then I put a strip of fO.q tape, a bit of Herbies Grungebuster, and a strip of Mat, and wrapped the whole thing tight as I could with packing tape. So yeah I paid attention to microphonics. Thanks!

I did consider those Mundorf inductors. Also Duelund. Also Erse, which I really wanted but they stopped making. Oh well it all worked out beautifully in the end!

@ ricevs - 9AWG (NINE) now that’s an inductor. Thanks for sharing, very cool.
And yes microphonics are a real issue. After mine were wound, I dipped them in a winding varnish that was tested out for it’s sonic characteristics.
Next time will be ribbon inductors, and Path resistors.

When you do your outboard crossovers, do you also run separate speaker cables to each circuit, so as to not share signal or potential from ground?
Run them directly to the output of the amp, my old boss did that on a limited run of outboard crossovers and it worked very well. Of course, he makes ribbon speaker cables, and internal speaker wire, the crossovers have two full runs of 2+" wide ribbon 2.5 metres long. It gets expensive at that point.

A question for MC or anyone...if you had an opportunity to replace the drivers or all of the components you worked on what would you do if money was not an object.  Where do you think the biggest bang for the buck is between the drivers and the caps/ resistors etc?  

@millercarbon,

I got a big jump in resolution going from the stock spikes on the outboard crossovers to the Walker Audio Resonance control kit under each crossover. The solidity of each instrument in space is spooky and a real good recording just hangs in the air. Cymbal attacks are heavy and the weight of each cymbal can be clearly heard. Of course, average recordings are just as fun!

https://walkeraudio.com/product/valid-points-resonance-control-kit/