Good question, lots of answers.


I've owned a pair of Legacy Classics for over 5 years now and have no intention of 'upgrading'. Granted, they are large (110#) but they are full range and ruthlessly accurate (no more than down .2db @ 22) but rewarding as ever when good source materail is used. Sometimes they even 'dissappear', which is a hard act to do. Once you've listened to a good, full-range system, its hard to go back to anything that doesn't convey the full intent of what the artist originally intended. I hope that doesn't sound elitest, just truthful. They now cost about $700 more than what I paid but you may be able to find someone who can audition them for you. I was lucky enough to do just that before I bought mine: the guy had a CD of Nat King Cole that was accidentally remastered without the trademark 'echo' used at the time and it seemed that he was actually in the room with me, crooning away. It sent chills down my spine and I was sold right then and there. Granted, some old 20 watt Macs were driving them effortlessly so that helped in creating the illusion but man, o man. What glorious sound. On an aside, the recording engineer (I forget his name) bought a pair of Legacys himself once he heard them and he's been around a long time (Eagles, Steely Dan, etc) and now he remasters. Hope this helps.
128x128nonoise

Showing 3 responses by sean

You should study the in-room frequency response charts of various Legacy models. While nobody can deny that some folks like them, there's plenty of evidence to support the fact that they are anything BUT "accurate" or "transparent". If you were able to get rid of the +6 to +8 dB bass hump that they exhibit at appr 100 - 120 Hz, i think that you'll find that they sound a helluva lot better. Stuffing your ports may help somewhat but it's not a cure-all. Sean
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I was simply responding to subjective statements that i disagree with. Not only does my personal opinion and experience differ with that of Nonoise, but i can also provide empirical evidence to support my statements. Both sources of evidence were provided by industry professionals that get paid to test and measure audio related equipment for a living. They not only provide the results obtained, they explain how the tests were taken. Most larger Legacy's do not measure very well and their lack of sonic accuracy is quite evident / supportive of the measurements that i've seen. Buy them if you like them, but don't try to convince anyone that they are linear or "accurate". Sean
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Given that the Sensible Sound has raved about Legacy's for 20 years, it is no surprise that they didn't really like B&W's. If one has a preference for speakers with heavy bass output and a shrill and peaky treble response, using a speaker that is slightly lean to neutral in the bass region with a reasonably smooth treble response will obviously not be to their liking. As i've mentioned in other threads, the Signature III doesn't have the "over the top" brightness that other Legacy designs do, but it does suffer from bloated low end response. Sean
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