A short 24-minute drive across a river and into the trees brought me, once again, to the home of GTT Audio. This time for a look and listen to the new flagship Vivid Audio Moya M1 Loudspeakers.
You may remember my last visit to GTT back in March of 2023 to see and hear a number of speakers from Vivid’s lineup, priced from $11,000/pair on up to the then current top of the line $95,000/pair GIYA G1 Spirit. The new Moya M1 sit even higher up the line, coming in at $465,000/pair.
From Vivid Audio:
The Vivid Audio Moya M1 is a 5-Way, 13-speaker design.Four extensively braced bass enclosures, each using two C225 bass drivers in reaction-cancelling modes with aerodynamically-optimised bass ports, are complemented by two C175 mid bass drivers, one C100 mid-range, one D50 upper mid-range and one D26 tweeter.
All drivers are developed from our existing drivers and optimised for use in the Moya M1. The speaker makes use of a passive, five-way, fourth order Linkwitz-Riley crossover in three parts, where the mid & high sections are placed well away from bass sections.
The Moya M1 is manufactured entirely in-house to allow for absolute control over every facet of the build process. To meet our exacting standards we craft, assemble and finish each part in-house by hand.
For more on the M1, see my press release post and the Vivid Audio website.
The Moya M1 stand just over 5′ tall with a depth of 3.9′. Think deep. The big room at Bill Parish’s GTT Audio is a really big room, measuring 20.5′ wide x 35′ long x 11′ high, making the not small Moya M1 a good visual fit.
Let’s meet the full system at work:
Kronos Discovery Turntable: $115,000
Kronos Discovery Super Cap Power Supply: $24,000
Kronos Discovery RS Tonearm: $24,000
Kronos Discovery Rack: $18,000
My Sonic Lab Platinum Signature: $11,000
Audionet PAM G2 Phono Stage: $10,100
Audionet Ampere Phono Stage Power Supply: $11,200
Auralic Aries G2.2: $6,100
Master Fidelity NADAC D: $23,000
Master Fidelity NADAC C: $27,500
Audionet Stern Line Stage: $48,950
Audionet Heisenberg Mono Amps x2: $105,000/pair
Vivid Audio Moya M1: $465,000/pair
Finite Elemente Pagode Master Reference Equipment Racks: $12,250/ea.
Kubala Sosna Realization Cables: $200,000 estimated
Kubala Sosna Xpander – Power Distribution: $6,500/10 outlet
Dejitter It Switch X/WiFi X: $4,250
Roon Nucleus + w/Sean Jacobs PS DC4: $10,000
Total system price: $1,239,100
The Master Fidelity NADAC D 1-bit DAC sitting on the Finite Elemente Pagode Master Reference Rack.
The Master Fidelity NADAC C Master Clock and the (apologies for the blur) Auralic Aries G2.2.
Kronos Discovery Turntable, RS Tonearm, and Rack.
My Sonic Lab Platinum Signature MC Cartridge sitting on the tip of the Kronos Discovery RS Tonearm.
Audionet Stern Line Stage.
A pair of the Audionet Heisenberg Mono Amps were used for each channel, offering 530 Watts of output power into 8 Ohms, 1,050 Watts into 4 Ohms, and a whopping 2,100 Watts into 2. Per side! Woof! I reviewed the Audionet HUMBOLDT Integrated Amplifier (review) back in March so I have some recent personal time with Audionet’s house sound. Think powerful purity.
One thing we all know, and something I never tire of repeating, is people are the most important factor in any piece of hifi kit. More important than parts, topology, country of origin, design. And we were treated to an animated presentation from none other than Laurence Dickie, Vivid Audio’s co-founder and designer of every Vivid Audio speaker. For more on Vivid Audio, Laurence Dickie, and history, check out my write-up of my last visit to GTT and the Vivid Audio website.
Also in attendance (in alpha order):
Jeff Brown, Positive Feedback
Dick Diamond, GTT Audio
Chris Harr, Tone Audio
Grover Neville, Indulgr
Bill Parish, GTT Audio
Marc Philips, Part-Time Audiophile
Ewald Verkerk, Worldwide Brand Manager Vivid/Mola Mola
Dean Waters, Positive Feedback
Greg Weaver, The Audio Analyst
Another thing we all know is the most important metric for any piece of hifi kit lies in its ability to communicate music. It lies in the listening. During my 5+ hour visit, I had the opportunity to sit in the sweet spot, although this entire space sounded pretty sweet when filled with music, with full control of the iPad-based Roon remote.
My Playlist:
“Queen Bee” from Kulanjan by Taj Mahal and Toumani Diabaté
“Go Your Way” from Voices From the Empty Moore by Devin Hoff featuring Sharon Van Etten
“Atmosphere” from Lonely Guest by Lonely Guest ft. Lee Scratch Perry, Tricky, Marta
“Pay My Taxes” from Lonely Guest by Lonely Guest ft. Murkage Dave
“Warm Canto” from The Quest by Mal Waldron
“Love Letter” from No More Shall We Part by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“Meeting Across the River” from Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
“Spit” from Corpus I by Show Me The Body ft. Princess Nokia
“When My Baby Comes” from Grinderman 2 by Grinderman
“Klangwolke II” from Solo Drumming by Fritz Hauser
I’ve reviewed two pair of speakers from Vivid Audio—the Kaya K45 (review) and the GIYA G3 Series 2 (review)—so I know the Vivid house sound well. Up close and personal.
Here’s one thing I said in the GIYA G3 review:
While it’s been a while, about 7 months, since the Vivid K45 were here, I can still recall their ability to dissolve into music. The GIYA G3 share this magic trick and add real weight, body, and a more fully realized physical form to music, making the experience that much more moving, that much more exciting. There’s simply more there, there that goes well beyond what any spec can ever tell you.
Would you be the least bit surprised to learn that the new Moya M1 sound a lot like a larger Vivid? Like even more Vivid? I am a great fan of a house sound, especially a consistent house sound because it shows, among other things, that what you hear from one product to the next is no accident. It’s called engineering.
I had a chance to sit one-on-one with Laurence Dickey for a casual conversation, the way I prefer to roll, and asked, albeit awkwardly, about the prototyping process for the M1s and more specifically how much did he know about the M1’s sound before they were built. And Laurence explained that since his approach remains consistent from speaker to speaker as do the basic ingredients in a general sense, surprises are greatly minimized. That being said, the M1’s, even in prototype form with a wooden cabinet offered at least one surprise—even more than Laurence hoped for.
One aspect of the Moya M1’s performance that surprised me is that all of the music we heard throughout the day sounded perfectly scaled—not HUGE—as can be the unfortunate case with some big speakers. The M1’s retained the supreme purity you hear from any pair of Vivid speakers, a kind of untouched quality, and they are also surprisingly delicate and light on their feet while offering room-shaking deep bass when called for as is the case on those Lonely Guest tracks.
This system also carved out the space of the recording, even the vastness of the atrium in Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau captured on Solo Drumming, with perfect precision. The glass topped multi-story atrium comes with a 7 second reverberation time and Fritz Hauser and his percussion explore every last bit in time and space and the Moya M1-fronted rig described this stunning live story with delicacy, power, fast as lightning dynamics, and pinpoint precision. Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and you can feel yourself surrounded by this remarkable spatial audio (wink). Fully immersed.
Overall, the Moya M1 have a pristine quality yet are rich in tone and texture combined with real physicality. Of course these impressions are based on a few hours of listening in what is for me a familiar setting to a number of more than familiar tunes so I have no issue, or lack of confidence, in sharing these rather specific and detailed listening impressions.
But as we all know, time always tells a more complete story and my educated guess is the Moya M1 have a lot more to say…
My thanks to Bill Parish and Dick Diamond of GTT Audio, Ewald Verkerk of Vivid/Mola Mola, and Laurance Dickie for a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable day.
Websites:
Vivid Audio Moya M1 Specifications
Configuration: 5-way, 13 driver system
Cabinet material: Carbon-reinforced balsa-cored vacuum-infused sandwich composite
Standard colours: Piano Black, Lexus Pearl White, Oyster Grey Matte
Bespoke colours: PPG automotive colours available on request
Drive units
High frequency: D26DLC – 26 mm Diamond-like Coated alloy dome unit with Tapered Tube Loading. Ultra-high flux radial magnet system
Upper Mid frequency: D50DLC – 50 mm Diamond-like Coated alloy dome unit with Tapered Tube Loading. Copper shielded radial magnet system
Mid frequency: C100SCu – 100mm carbon fibre reinforced alloy cone driver with Tapered Tube Loading. Copper shielded rare-earth radial magnet system
Lower-mid frequency: 2 x C175-76 – 175 mm carbon fibre reinforced diaphragm with 76 mm voice coil with rare-earth radial magnet system. Tapered Tube Loading
Low frequency: 8 x C225-100H – 225 mm alloy diaphragm with 100mm voice coil in 45 mm gap rare-earth radial magnet system
Bass loading: Exponentially Tapered Tube enhanced bass reflex
Sensitivity: 93dB/2.83V@1m
Nominal impedance: (Ω)5 nominal, 2.5 minimum at 40 Hz
Frequency range (Hz): -6 dB points: 19 Hz – 42,000 Hz
First D26 Break Up mode (Hz): > 50,000 Hz
Harmonic distortion(2nd and 3rd harmonics): < -60dB > 100 Hz
Cross over frequencies (Hz): 125 Hz – 550 Hz – 1,700 Hz – 4,000 Hz
Power handling (music program) watts rms: 3,000W
Loudspeaker dimensions: 1,660 mm (H) x 660 mm (W) x 1,210 mm (D)
Net weight: 346 kg (each)
Gross weight: 1,084 kg
