The Moya M1 was born of circumstance. Quarantined in a hotel room for 10 days by the global pandemic, Laurence Dickie began to sketch out an idea for a speaker that could do it all.

Physically, that concept would evolve many times through the R&D phase but the vision remained unchanged: the non plus ultra of loudspeakers, able to handle anything with aplomb. A loudspeaker so imbued with power and authority, particularly from the lower frequencies, that it could deliver any and all types of music with effortless grace.

As the Vivid Audio team went into test phase, the design of the Moya began to take shape. An imposing stack of bass drivers became the dominant feature of the curvaceous design. Early results reaffirmed the observation that an extended low frequency range actually helps with the overall perspective of the entire frequency range.

Of course, a loudspeaker is much more than just the bass, but the low frequency section does play an outsized role. Most importantly, it sets the system efficiency and, since it is relatively straightforward to create high efficiency mid-band drivers, these have to be attenuated back to the level set by the bass.

POWER IS NOTHING WITHOUT CONTROL

Opening the throttle of a powerful car as you go into a racetrack curve; hitting the high notes in a trumpet solo; the muscular thrust skyward of a world-class ballerina. All need raw power, but every application of power requires finesse too. Sometimes, measuring the smallest things entails the largest machines.

Without control and refinement, power is just an unruly force. Any large loudspeaker can play loud, but that’s only part of its purpose. The listener must also be able to pick out the subtlest detail from the hullabaloo of an orchestral crescendo or hear an exclamation of appreciation in the midst of an explosive drum solo.

Moya M1 delivers this precision to the Nth degree, while also being able to reproduce rock concert levels of sound in your living room. From an organ symphony on a huge Cavaillé-Coll instrument to low-end bass from a 90s house anthem, the Moya M1 delivers audio thrills at every octave.

MASTERING THE SEQUENCE

The next question was which driver to put next in the sequence. The C125-75 midrange, used in our G1S speaker, is a great driver but would be excursion limited down to 400Hz to keep up with the immense output of the lower frequency.

Alternatively, taking the eight bass drivers up to 400Hz would be pushing the limits of what was reasonable for such a large array. Clearly, another frequency band was needed to bridge the gap, necessitating a complex five-way crossover and the addition of a pair of C175 bass/mid drivers.

Using computer-aided network analysis and optimisation, in conjunction with ideally-behaved drivers, a seamless five-way dividing network was perfectly achievable.

Now the delicate balance of highs, lows and mids was perfectly harmonised – for an optimal experience that will reveal new details from your record collection at every listening session.

TWEETERS
MINING MATERIAL GAINS

Exotic tweeter dome materials appeared in the audio world as far back as the 1990s. Noting the trend, Vivid Audio weighed the choices and made a pivotal decision.

Blending the rigidity of carbon fibre with an aluminium dome crafted into a catenary shape, we achieved a measured response that rivalled the performance of rare and costly beryllium, while delivering subjective results that surpassed even diamond tweeters.

One key advantage of our reinforced aluminium dome over diamond lies in its lower mass. Creating a reliable diamond shell requires a 100-micron-thick layer deposit. When combined with diamond’s increased density over aluminium, it results in a moving mass three times greater than that of aluminium.

This leads to a significant reduction in efficiency – approximately 10dB lower! The subjective improvement derived from requiring only one-tenth of the power for the same sound pressure level should not be underestimated.

It is fundamental to the effortless sound reproduction for which Vivid Audio loudspeakers are now renowned.

MID RANGE
A COMMANDING PERFORMANCE

Occupying the all-important mid-range spotlight is our venerable C100SCu mid-driver. This unit is a reliable soldier for the critical space on the audio spectrum where the demands of soprano vocals and violin strings must be met.

In honour of its new position in the centre of the Moya M1 baffle, its already stellar performance is now further enhanced with high-energy magnet material and a high-purity copper shield over the central pole.

This stabilises the magnetic flux in the face of the influence of the musical signal, yielding extended highs and dramatically reduced distortion.

Adding three carbon fibre rings to the cone assembly produces a notable increase in the break-up frequencies, placing an even safer margin between them and the uppermost extent of the working band – the top C6 of the soprano’s vocal range.

 

AN AGILE PARTNER

The C175 now finds itself in a new role covering the low mid-band between 125Hz and 550Hz. While not being called upon to reproduce the lowest bass, this agile driver is ideally suited to delivering those chest-rattling drum notes with impact and urgency.

Formerly underpinning the bottom octaves of our Giya G2 loudspeaker, the C175 has long-term power handling in abundance, essential in a band where so much of the fundamental energy of strings and vocals is centred.

Two exponentially-tapered partitions extending the full height of the enclosure ensure the complete annihilation of parasitic eigen-resonances, resulting in fantastically accurate transients in the band that is responsible for so much of the system’s impact.

BASS DRIVERS
ROCKING THE FOUNDATIONS

The Moya M1 bass array is one feature you can’t miss. Eight legendary C225-100H drivers, each one capable of handling 800W, arranged in a new high-shove configuration. An awesome display of power!

The C225 uses a radially polarised magnet structure, in this case twelve 45mm-long segments of high energy rare-earth magnet in an 11kg lump of high-purity steel. Wound on a virtually indestructible glass-reinforced former, capable of handling over 300°C, the edge-wound copper-ribbon voice coil can take extreme power in its stride.

Each pair of drivers is arranged in a horizontally-opposed configuration on either side of the bass module, with magnets united by a substantial steel tie-bar to completely eliminate reaction forces and the need for a heavy enclosure.

A foam-cored composite sandwich is used throughout the cabinet, which features extensive composite bracing to ensure a resolutely stiff enclosure with all structural modes safely out of band.

Ultimate low-end is provided by a pair of reaction-cancelling ports, which, by virtue of the exceptionally low crossover frequency of the bass section, can be generously proportioned, thereby minimising any turbulent effects which might limit low-end linearity.

As with the entire Vivid Audio range, the Moya M1 uses exponential absorbers. In the bass systems this is achieved by terminating the tapered chamber with an arrangement of nested concentric shells, accurately defining the exponential taper and safely dissipating any unwanted resonances.