Ordered a pair just now. In Dark Gray, to which Tammy immediately said, "Oh the Charcoal is beautiful!" Charcoal sounds better than Dark Gray (even though we are talking about the same color!) so Charcoal it is!
My beloved Talon Khorus do still sound awfully good. It will be interesting to see how the Moabs stock out of the box compare with these tweaked and modded warhorses. Both the strength, and the weakness, of the Khorus is using the 10" woofer to cover so much midrange. Its a strength because it makes for a very smooth and cohesive sound. But its a weakness because its asking a lot of such a large driver to go so high. Talon makes up for it with their isobaric design. Mounted inside and directly behind the woofer is another identical driver facing the opposite direction. The idea is this relieves the front facing driver of having to compress the air inside the cabinet. This does allow for a much faster response, and is a big reason for the wonderful music the Khorus produces.
I have a feeling however it is no match for Eric Alexander's ultra-low mass driver array solution. Only one way to know for sure. So we will just have to see!
Congrats MC, will be interested in your review of them.
if, and when, I decide to replace my Vandersteen’s, Tekton’s are extremely high on the list. At this point, almost a guarantee. But, at 135 LB per, doubtful it will be the Moab. At 75 LB, my 2CE Sigs are about as much as I can handle on my own, and I ain’t getting any younger ;-)
Actually, I find they make a much finer impact visually than my past two sets, not just because the Moabs demand attention, owing to size, but because the tweeter array and stature of the speaker are so damn interesting to look upon. I went with white, which creates great contrast against the black driver array.
Ordering the Moabs prompted me to repaint the room and the adjacent stairwell, so the whole area just glows now, with new contrasting paint and the massive speakers.
I almost feel that its best not to brag about the sound, because it's exciting to see how people react to them without putting my finger on the scale... I will look forward to your impressions, MC.
You are going to love the Moabs. No question about that. After moving a bunch of 300# boulders this past week, 135# is looking not so bad. That is the only negative I can come up with.
As to those who can only post they are ugly--well thank you SO much. Like we don't have a pair of eyes to judge that for ourselves. If you want to buy a speaker where 70% of the cost went into the cabinet--go for it! As for me, when one does the math on driver cost and retail cost--all of Eric's speakers are a disruptive value to say the least. I can't think of any other speaker line that offers this kind of value. Maybe that is why a few individuals become unsettled with Tekton speakers. Here is one more thought. I always listen with subdued lighting. Why do you want to distract your brains processing power with gorgeous woodgrain/cabinetry. Maybe because the sound for what you paid is really not that hot. And this is coming from someone who likes woodworking and appreciates the beauty of wood. But when listening to music, I find it a distraction. I think we all know that.
Congrats on what I guarantee will be a very satisfying speaker. I've had the Double Impacts, Double Impact SEs, and now the Encores, all top notch. I had my SEs done in charcoal and thought they looked great.
As to appearance, before I bought the Encores, I tried some open baffle Pure Audio Project Trio15s (fine speaker, by the way) on a whim. I had no sooner put them together than my wife broke walked into the room and immediately broke down in tears. She thought they were hideous. I put them up for sale fifteen minutes later and ordered the Encores fifteen minutes after that. I had her choose the color, and she went with Spanish Tile, which matches the colors in our room. When they arrived several weeks later, I thought she'd balk at their formidable size. Nope. She loves the way they look in our room. No more tears.
And, oh yeah, they are also the best sounding speakers I've ever owned. She likes that, too.
Do you also enjoy telling your friends that their pictures of their children are homely? What is the point of gratuitous ugliness? Don't like 'em, don't buy 'em, but why rain on anyone else's parade? It's unseemly.
way to go Chuck! I hope you’ll share your Moab experience with us. I’m very curious. I’ve got my eye on Encores. Riley, those were unkind words and unnecessary IMO. Larry
It seems like the majority of your posts on this thread is defending your right to your opinion on the speakers. Point being, if the OP wanted comments on the looks of the speakers he just bought, that would be the subject of this thread. You certainly have the right to your opinion, however this might not be the thread to express it, hence the other comments too.
Thanks guys. One reason for this thread is to right a wrong. The thread that first brought the Moabs and Tekton to my attention was sophomoric from the get-go. Substance shouldn’t be an uphill battle but oh well. In fairness its not anything to do with the subject but more a feature of the site and its encouragement of the worst sort. The good news is as my example shows its possible to glean information even so. The positives do outweigh the negatives, and your constructive comments make scrolling past the others worthwhile. Many thanks.
Another reason for this thread, solid reliable information on the nuts and bolts of ordering was hard to find. The ones who are happy tend not to go into it much, and the (thankfully few) ones who aren’t their disgruntlement overshadows their message. This way its out there from the beginning, the good and the bad, and we will all just see how it unfolds.
I think for $4500 they could look a lot better than what they do.
From everything I’ve ever read about Tekton’s, they hit away and above their weight. I’m pretty sure you can probably find a reputable reviewer who will/has compared the Moab’s to 20-30K speakers without hesitation. With Eric’s designs, this seems inherently the outcome.
As a designer by profession, sure, there are ‘prettier’ speakers, but I’m much more interested in what they can sonically deliver vs their looks. And if the looks are one of the reasons for them being a bargain, I’m all for that. Hell, I like aesthetics too, it’s important to my business, yet I have Vandersteen 2CE’s in my living room. Why? Because I’m not sure anything can touch them musically for the price paid, and that’s what their job is. ‘Form follows function’. I sure didn’t buy them for their looks ;-) Anyway, I am somewhat attracted by the handmade look of the Tekton’s. There is something endearing about that. To me.
Your opinion is....subjective. You could say the same about an amp, a pre, a TT, an arm, a cartridge, a DAC, etc. etc etc. Yet, I don’t see many folks talk about those items in an aesthetic way, Nor make those judgements for why or why they wouldn’t buy a particular product. No, they usually purchase equipment for what they can deliver to the end user in terms of expectations and desires. Do their looks come into play? I’m sure they do, but I rarely hear that stated as a reason for buying one product over another. The next guy may not have an issue whatsoever.
Very excited for you MC! Surprised it took this long for you to pull the trigger. I picked up a very slightly used pair of Pendragons (so I didn't have a color choice) in black and I happen to really like the look. But far more importantly is the fantastic music they produce. Can't wait to hear your take on those Moabs.
@millercarbon purchased a pair in Spanish Tile last October. They replaced a pair of Cornwall III’s. I have been very happy with them. They seem to reveal any tweak that is made. I replaced some AQ Red River cables with some DIY silver cables with silver connectors. After 100 hours of burn in, the improvement in clarity was easily noticed. I did miss the dynamics that the horns produced. However, I wouldn’t go back to the Cornwalls. I did add some Stein Harmonizers which did add some dynamics without loss of SQ.
I’m so pleased with the current sound the only change I will make is additional acoustic panels to the room. Probably to include a couple of panels to ceiling. Happy listening.
Congrats MC. I own Tekton DI SE’s in a custom dark charcoal gray. Automotive paint (BMW Dark Graphite Metallic). Not sure if you contemplated going custom color vs. standard colors. I can assure you Eric’s custom paint job is masterful, and IMO a big upgrade over the standard colors. Either way, I’m sure you’ll love the Moab’s!
Congrats!! The DIs I had were fantastic. Missed them everyday I listen. Cant wait to hear your take on the Moabs. The DIs had the best midbass I've ever heard in any speaker. That's the only thing I have any dought about since they dont have the midbass drivers. Please post your impressions! Moabs are what I want next if all this BS passes and I still have a job!! Lol.
I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, just go to Six Moons website and in the archive look up my review on the Moab. There are great pictures of both my pair of Ulfs in a custom paint job and the review pair of Moabs in a striking beautiful custom color.
By the way I also gave them a "Blue Moon Award" for being one of the products of the year. You get very close to the performance of the Ulfs, but for half the price. I asked Eric, in the review, if he was concerned about hurting his own sales of his reference speaker with coming out with the Moab design. In typical fashion, Eric's answer was no, all he cares about is building the best speakers that he can at prices that the great majority of music lovers can realistically purchase.
I have a great sense of pleasure at being the first professional reviewer that did reviews on the DI, Ulf, PS, DI monitor and Moab speakers. Each one was a joy to have in-house and all are superlative performers at different price points that are some of the best bargains regarding performance vs cost ratio.
To be honest I don't really care much what things look like. Or what they're made from for that matter. When I listen, I listen. Lights out, eyes closed. That's not to say I don't care at all. My wife has good color sense and so I did ask her before choosing Charcoal.
But really, I am all about the sound. Its very likely that within a year or so these will have been taken apart and put back together again, a process in which it may well turn out there are good mods that would improve the sound while damaging or changing or covering up the impeccable exterior finish. In that case I would be shooting myself in the foot. Not to mention, life happens. Vacuum cleaner, oops.... chip, scuff... which let's face it is pretty much inevitable.
The great value of being able to talk with teajay about this is his comparing the Moab to another strong contender, the Ulfberht. Long story short, there is less between these two than between say my current Melody and a Raven. For what Ulfberhts cost I could have Moabs and a Raven Nighthawk. Or half a Reflection MkII. Which is another long term goal. Me being the value buyer that I am that is a strong argument for the Moabs.
Happy for your purchase and I hope you enjoy them. Though they do look like those hunter killers with the tentacles in the matrix. That array looks just like their eyes. Anyways, I happy for you.
they do look like those hunter killers with the tentacles in the matrix. That array looks just like their eyes.
Glad you brought that up. In the future of The Matrix robots have harnessed human beings and are keeping them alive in order to harvest their energy. A violation of pretty much all the laws of thermodynamics, made all the more ludicrous by all the trouble they went to provide the pod people such a marvelous dream world. It made Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure seem almost some kind of intellectual documentary. What a shame. When with just a few lines of dialog it could have made total sense: We’re smart but not creative. The humans are creative, but not as slaves. We will make them believe they are not slaves.
In other words what the banksters and the Fed do now, The Matrix robots would be doing. But the banksters bankroll Hollywood, that’s way too much truth for debt slaves, and so instead we got a word salad shoot em up.
Eric Alexander built and listened and tried and failed over and over again until he had the creative insight that the problem is we’re trying to recreate the harmonic structure of very low moving mass parts with very high moving mass parts. Not having access to Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburne and Carrie Moss to paper over this giant gaping hole in the story with a shiny blingy facade (like everyone else is doing) he went all creative on the robots and invented his awesome tweeter array.
Tweeters have very low mass and very high power to weight ratio. The only problem being they’re small, and so find it hard to move the large mass of air required of low frequencies. A whole bunch of them moving together however can get the job done. I’m told the tweeter array in the Moabs is equivalent to a 9" midrange.
Pretty phenomenal when you think about it. What Eric has done is create a 9" midrange with the effective moving mass of a 1" tweeter. No wonder everyone says the midrange is so beautiful. I can hardly wait to hear it myself.
Congrats Miller carbon. I ordered mine last week, I’m looking for a new home for my double impacts.If anyone out there is near Cleveland I’ve got a sick deal. Did you get any options with your new speakers? I ordered mine with the bi-amp option. I have several friends who go to the audio shows. They are continually blown away with the sound you get for the price. I hope you’re as happy as my friends are. I ordered them because I thought they looked cool> lol How they sounded was a luck-out on my part
Miller, I hope you love them! What will you drive them with? Not sure where you live but they will make sheltering in place like we still have in Illinois much more palatable! As you know they are a double Perfect Set which is also a great speaker (and also large for about 2K.) You must understand that Moabs are really big full size speaker for most humans! The Ulfs are like having a pair of Washington Monuments in your house! Bob
Congratulations! The Moabs are very intriguing to me and I’d love to hear them. I was torn between buying those and the Klipsch Cornwall IV and ended up with the Klipsch. I hope you get many hours of enjoyable listening out of those bad boys!!
Congratulations you are going to love them. I have a pair of the Ulfberhts and my only regret is that I didn’t get them in a custom color. Tekton Design speakers while they are a performance bargain can be very expensive to keep because they tell you exactly what the rest of your system is or isn’t doing.
Hey Millercarbon, I think you meant the quote below to be placed in a conspiracy rant on some political website: ” In other words what the banksters and the Fed do now, The Matrix robots would be doing. But the banksters bankroll Hollywood, that’s way too much truth for debt slaves, and so instead we got a word salad shoot em up. ”
You know that you only want to open up those speakers to see if David Icke is hiding in one of them. Trolls used to steal other’s threads, now they steal their own.
The Northwest US seems to be a hotbed of conspiracy theorists and generally hostile and angry people. Maybe it’s because of all the rain, who the heck knows? At least it’s not a CCCP virus. Then we’d really be in deep kimchi.
I am purchasing a Pair of the Utah made MOAB Speakers! It is good to see all of the comments everyone has posted. I broke the bank also to get a Parasound A21+ amp. Pairing everything up with my Marantz AV 7705. New to the Audiophile scene. Can anyone assure me this will be a Good setup?? :) I HOPE! Thanks
millercarbon, kudos on the exploration and new experiences coming your way!
Have you ever owned a quasi-line array speaker? Prepare yourself for some dramatically different (in some ways more/less pleasing) attributes. I predict it won't be as precise as your current speaker in terms of center image density and focus, but will have a great deal more presence and scale. The bass should be more profound as well. From what I heard of the bookshelf model at AXPONA (back in the days of shows; hopefully to return soon!) it will be moving in the direction of a panel speaker, with a splaying of the imaging, but a sense of openness to it - a simple trade-off based on design. (Now, for our rabid Tekton fans, I have zero interest in arguing about my observation. It's not intended as a scree against the design, but an assessment of the inherent characteristics of different designs).
It would be ideal if you can keep your current speakers and switch between them over time. It's a terrific way to play the game, by gaining familiarity with the variety of builds, designs.
You may find yourself pining for a different amp, too. A line array is a different experience with higher power.
Don't be surprised if you have mixed reaction to the speakers at first. It will be dramatically different. It takes bit to acclimatize to the new design. The scale and dynamics will probably be impressive. Go back and forth between the two (Perhaps not hourly - unless you can put them side by side! ;) ) and you will hear the characteristics of each one's design, and perhaps you will be like me, finding much to appreciate about both types. The temptation may be to quickly declare the Moab the "winner", but in time with comparison you may find that each has its own strengths.
Switching between different genres of speakers also is curious because it allows one to experience the settling effect that happens with ownership. After one adjusts to the idiosyncrasies of the new speaker, it begins to sound perfectly normal, as if it is ideal. Then, when you switch again, the settling must occur, and eventually the mind adapts and considers that also to be a distinctly "right" sound. In one sense it's a bit scary, because it shows how malleable our perceptions of what a perfect sound is. OTOH, it shows that many different speakers are capturing some wonderful aspects of performance. :)
If you have never owned a panel or quasi-line array speaker it may tickle your fancy and be "the One", the type of speaker that thrills you to no end. Looks like you're in for some fun!
If you want to be happy in your audiophile life Never get a pretty speaker, they'll cause you strife So from my personal point of view Get an ugly loudspeaker to boogie to
My apologies to the Coasters.
Congrats on the new loudspeakers. But hey, weren't you an early, big-time alarmist about the pandemic. You were forecasting tens of millions dead. And now you complain that it's fake news. Have you no shame!
Congrats on the Moab's. I always smile when I hear that name, as I used to live in Moab (Utah).
I've owned a pair of Tekton M-Lore's in Ferrari Rosso Corso (racing red) for going on four years and really love 'em. My music system is housed in a small room, but I'd love to try a larger pair of Tekton's if I could figure out a way where they wouldn't overpower the room. BTDT with a pair of Klipsch Epic CF-4's and it was not fun.
Anyway, enjoy your new Moab's and please post a detailed report after you've listened to them for a while.
Any speaker that can be ordered in blue, orange, or red should be applauded even before hearing it (which, I suspect, will just make it even better deal).
spotcheckb- Anyway, enjoy your new Moab's and please post a detailed report after you've listened to them for a while.
Lol! You're new or you would know- a detailed review is a given. teajay and others have written great reviews but this will be unusually extensive. Everything from the ordering process to unpacking and setting up to construction and of course listening impressions. The Full Monty.
Speaking of which, so far they have just been ordered on-line. I called to talk with Eric but he was out so I got Tammy.
The on-line ordering is great for people who just want to pick a color, add a grill or tweeter, and order a pair. I've modded enough to know the value and impact of all the different internal parts. Every little thing makes a difference.
This is one of the great underappreciated differences between speakers. Its real easy to look at speakers like the Moab, Encore, and Ulfberht and see the different drivers. What you can't see are the parts inside. Pretty much everyone knows the crossovers have to change because of the drivers. Hardly anyone seems to know the parts quality can change as well.
Even though this makes total sense. When someone like Eric says his speakers have greater refinement as you go up the line, how do you suppose that happens? If you've modded you know greater refinement is exactly what you get with upgraded parts like caps.
So of course we are looking at upgrades. Stay tuned!
I hope the Tekton's bring as big a smile to @millercarbon as my big 12" Ohms are doing for me this very moment as I type. I suspect they will. Size matters.
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