Any opinions on Leagacy stuff?


Just received a Legacy Audio catalog in the mail. I've heard of them before, but never had a chance to audition them. Just wondered who has, and what you thought. Having 6 to 10 drivers in one speaker sounds interesting to say the least.
flip

Showing 2 responses by trelja

I sincerely hate to be the negative one in this post. But, Legacy speakers(along with Carver electronics) are the source of my biggest disappointments in audio. Both write great advertisement. Both are as underwhelming, and as disappointing(compared to their ads) as it gets. Both taught me the most important lesson I have learned in audio. You can't judge a book by the cover... I remember in the 80's, when I got my first Legacy catalog. I had been dreaming of buying(and/or building) the ultimate speaker. Here it was! Somebody did it. It had to be the best. It all fit together so well. Everything(physics, craftmanship, logic, etc.) on paper added up to a home run. One day, a local dealer had a used pair of their flagship model at the time(maybe now the Classic or Signature???), at a really LOW price(they were not a dealer, Legacy was factory direct at the time). I brought my favorite CD's. And my credit card. I was so excited. I would have bought them sight unseen(and sound unheard) if the dealer was not local. They started to play. And... NOTHING. Not bad(like the mass - fi stuff I sometime check out at Circuit City or Best Buy), just did not move me in the least. Left me as cold as anything I have ever come across. We tried a different system. Same thing. About 7 years later, I received an invitation(I stayed on their mailing list) to an audition(at one of their sites they still use). It was their first go around with this type of thing. Incomparably nice event. Food, drinks, music. Bill Duddleston was there. He was very witty and congenial. Mingled around, stopping to chat. Everyone with their questions on his philosophies, which he was only to happy to share. I listened to almost all of their speakers. Was there 3 or 4 hours. I was going to buy speakers that day(there or somewhere else). I had been shopping for a LONG time. Today was D-day. I had waited to make my move until I heard Legacy at the show. Sadly, my reaction was the same. NOTHING. They had left me colder than cold. On the way home, I stopped off at a local dealer, and bought my current Coincident speakers. I gave them one final listen. As before, they touched me in a way that I feel the equipment you keep forever does. I have been completely happy ever since...
As they say Flip, one man's meat is another man's poison. There are probably many who find them the best loudspeaker they have ever come across. I found the Legacy's to look fantastic on paper(and in person). The amount of drivers is quite impressive. However, the music produced by them seems to have no soul. No drive. Nothing. Like I said, not bad, like mass - fi stuff. But, not great either. They will produce volume, and probably measure perfectly fine. Maybe that's it. Speakers designed to measure great in an anechoic chamber are often lambasted as sounding lifeless in a real room. Who knows? Perhaps, some would say that I am the problem. That the speakers are actually neutral, etc. But, I have heard SO MANY speakers with both heart and soul, that to my ears, it has to be the speakers. As the British like to talk of the ability to get one's toes a tapping; these are not the speakers for this type of behavior. They do not seem big, in terms of sound. As Tmartinjr states, despite all that cone area, the speakers seem weak in the bass(to many people). I think the rest of the audio band is as equally uninspiring. They seem to me to be the audio equivalent of white paint. Believe me, no one wanted to love those speakers more than me. That is why the whole thing was so utterly devastating. But I can honestly say that there is NO way I could ever live with Legacy speakers. I would go mad trying to change every other part of my system, frantically trying to inject a pulse into the music. I compare them so much to Carver products, because they left me with the same emotions. When you read their ads, you may convince yourself that once in the presence of this equipment, you will finally hear music for the first time. That everything will be infused with a glorious glow, that no other equipment has ever presented to you before. And then when you actually listen, the music is completely antiseptic. I expect to be crucified by some because of my opinions. But, to say anything other than what I have in this thread would be disengenuous. So, let the lynch mob loose...