Has anyone listened to Legacy speakers?

This is my second pair of Legacy speakers. As a compulsive and heavily addicted trader, speakers sometimes come and go more often than bowel movements. Oddly enough, I ended up trading a pair Planars (one pair stats and one pair ribbons) for each of the pair of Legacy's. My first trade was for a pair of Legacy Classic's. I was heavily impressed by their good looks. Stunning rosewood and (what seemed to be) a very technically sound design. It seemed that everything that one needed for a hi-end speaker was there. Obviously, there was much attention paid (by Legacy) to the cabinet work. Trendy mat'l usage, such as Kevlar mid's, ribbon tweets and WBT terminals suggested that these may be the mother of all box speakers. After about a month with them, I could not have been more disappointed. The bass seemed weak and anemic, the midrange was honky and directional. Then there were the highs !! They could bore a hole through you with their bright and sizzling edge. The crackling sound that water makes as it strikes a cast iron skillet full of boiling oil, or perhaps the last sibilant sounds of a wheezing road kill snake is my best explanation. Zero imaging and the transparency of lead. I couldn't get rid of them fast enough. The person that bought them (thankfully) did it for home theater. He loved the sound. It has been two (speaker filled) years since the. I decided to give a somewhat different style of Legacy's a try and completed the trade with my planars. These are (and I still have them) a pair of Legacy Convergence (in a nice gloss black oak). The Convergence is an early model "Focus" (The name "Focus", according to Legacy, is an acronym for : Field Optimized Convergent technology wahoo). Production stopped for the Convergence in 1993/94. They used top quality drivers in this speaker. Two 12 inch Poly's (Eminence ?), two Focal 6.5 inch Polyglass mid/bass w/phase plugs and two high quality metal dome tweets (one mounted on the back baffle). There are no ribbon drivers and no passive radiators as in the Focus. The Legacy Convergence is 51 inches as compared to 55 inches for the Focus. Otherwise, they look nearly identical. The Convergence sold for 3500.00 (black) and the Focus for 5400.00 (black). It looks like 2000.00 is the difference for a just couple of years in age, two ribbon's and passive woofs.
To say that I am impressed with the Legacy Convergence very understated. There is no nasty high end and the bass is rich, full and tight. The Legacy's are open sounding, very involving and musical. The imaging is solidly defined with the resolution and detail of an electrostat. They throw a very large and transparent soundfield with images extending beyond the outside boundaries of the cabinets. They can get intense without edginess or listening fatigue, both at low volumes and at high. They are efficient (Very: 98 db). I would like to try a pair of SET's or new generation "Mini" Triodes with them (ala: VTL, Quicksilver, AES on and on). They can also absorb mega watts and play loud enough to remove paint..... so you can unpack your Bryston 7B's.. The Legacy's will draw one into the "music" and they will seem to disappear into their vast soundstage. They will (with the best recordings) leave just "you" and the "music" in the room. As the dynamic range increases on the recording, so does the speaker, without compression or signs of strain. They (the Convergence) shrink and grow as the music demands. From Leo Kottke's 12 string Martin guitar to the Dorian recordings of Saint-Saens Organ, these speakers can outperform anything that I know of (with a reasonable price tag).The mid's and high's are equal to the feeling that one gets with the light and airy presentation of the best mini-monitors. Voices are very seductive, involving and delicate. Pianos have weight, impact and authority. The taunt skin of drums is reproduced with snap and presence so fast it seems that it is felt instead of heard. The bass-lines are much better than most separate subwoofers. The Legacy's drop lower in their reach and they are much faster (Legacy say's: 21 hz). The low end also sounds like it is a part of the rest of the system .... rather than a separate entity. Cellos and string bass have that vibrant rasp that comes up through the floor and envelops you. Kick drums lock onto the room as if it had been shaken by a small quake. Amazing power. I have not looked inside them. Perhaps I should. If there is a way to make them sound even better (wire .. cap's .. terminals, etc) it would be worth any and all effort. These just may be keepers ..... although (unfortunately) I doubt it. I am certain that this sick and pathetic hobby (spelled: addiction) will force me to inject myself with the needle of audio change at some point. I am certain to grieve the loss of these fine performers as I claw my way on to the next fix. It's too bad. After hundreds of different speakers in my life, these are among the best .. if not 'the" best. I will assume that the Focus sounds similar. I am very suspicious of that ribbon/dome combo in the newer Legacy's though. The Legacy Convergence is at the very top of my list of the speakers that I truly enjoy the company of. That long list must even include my all-time favorite ... the Quad ESL-63. In some ways the Legacy's are as good and perhaps better. I feel that they can be as involving and perhaps as musical (on some mat'l). Of course they can play louder, but I have heard some people flatulate louder than a straining Quad (although it was impossible to determine who or what was straining harder). The strain of loudness is not the point. It has become trendy fodder for audiophiles to use the cliche regarding the inability of the Quads to become Klipshhorns. The point is that they (the Quads) are a fine instrument built with art of musical reproduction as it's intended purpose, but only within it's limitations to absorb power. The same is true for the Legacy's, but with far more impact and dynamics. They do all of that, and without showing themselves in the picture. What more could one ask for ?? What-cha got to trade :-)

Tubby ......

BTW: All amps and pre-amps used for this evaluation were either Tube or Solid State.
All CD players, Dacs, Transports, Turntables, Tonearms, Cartridges and Head Amps were either Digital or Analog.
All CD's and Records were flat and round.

Kimber Kable, heavy guage angulated tube ports, compartmentized internal bracing and silver solder is what I found inside the Legacy Convergence. After reading the horrors, in the postings about the "bad wiring", (on selected Legacy's) I wanted to see for myself. What I found inside the Convergence was more than just a relief. The overall construction and material is some of the best that I have ever seen. Each driver is wired with Kimber Kable and with double runs to each of the woofers. The soldering is first rate and done with silver solder. The internal bracing is compartmentized for the optimum cubic needs fr each driver. All bracing is done with at least inch thick board. There is heavy use of doping at all the vent and internal encloser joints. The venting tubes are shaped to proper cabinet length to maximize the air flow ... in other words, not just a hole with a pretty cap around it. Indeed it is a plumers nighmare. I did not get to the crossover, but did pull the Lexan panel that holds the WBT speaker lugs and switches. Yes, for what appears to be a resistor switch loop (for tailoring the highs and mids) there is small gauge sheathed hook-up wire (not "telephone" wire) soldered (again with silver solder) to high quality Microswitches (brand). The neccessity for wire (with this purpose in mind need) only be of small gauge. The by-pass switch (Microswitch) is wired with Kimber and the wire coming off of the WBT speaker lugs is OFC heavy gauge standed copper. Impressive to say the least. I seen a lot of speaker guts and these are amoung the best. It is like the mods were done so that one would not have to do any mods. I'll get to the crossover later and report on what I've seen (if anyone want's to know).

Tubby .....

(Sbox) ... I will take a look at the crossover today and report back to you on it. I am indeed a curious puppy now. Just a note about the power. Although very efficiant, the Legacies can absorb tons of raw earth shaking power. They seem to do it without strain, changing it directly into dynamics of high levels. However ... An audiophile friend brought his Kora Galaxy (a 50 watt per channel tube amp) over this last weekend (he also helped with the inspection of the inside of my Legacy's). His 50 watt amp did not strain at all. In fact, the sound of the combo was so lucious in the midrange that it enveloped the entire room with sound that I have never heard before from any solid state amp. I have always loved tubes, but the pick of speakers for them has been limited. The Legacy will play perfectly with low power ... as long as the power that you feed them is high in musical quality.

Tubby ......

The Legacy Convergence crossover. It is very well done.
In terms of quality, structural integrity and/or workmanship the Legacy crossover is as good (or better) than you will ever see in many Hi-End speaker systems. With regard to the construction techniques and material, I have not seen anything that surpasses (at least by any wide margin) the quality of the Legacy crossover (that covers much turf after 35 years of this rabid hobby).
After pulling the top woofer out of the cabinet and removing the absorbing material, I was immediately surprised by the large dimensions and impressed by the obvious high quality of the crossover. Not just on "one" side .. but on "both" sides of the cabinet. Firmly attached by screws and starwashers are two 10" by 10" enamelled layout boards.
The woofer section is attached to the right side and holds three very large coils (about half the size of beer cans). Also mounted on that board are Sprague capacitors and the "star" termination for the Kimber wiring. The left side holds another 10" by 10" enamelled layout board for the mids and highs. There is one large coil, three medium size coils and the capacitor arrays. The capacitors are (once again) Sprague and also (to my amazement) Sidereal (!). Again, the terminations were "star" grouped. Where they were soldered, it was all done with silver solder. All junctions were done on threaded chrome posts with nuts large enough to cover the entire surface area of the forked spades or ring terminals. Quite to the contrary of some other comments (on the material used), I did not find any (not even one) "clip on" style connector (s). Every connection was tight (held either by the binding posts or solder) and had ample clearance from other connections, terminations and componants. All jumpers (where used) were heavy gage, high quality hook up style wire (at least 12/14 ga.).
I did not recognize the brand of coils, so I opted to call Legacy. I was braced for some "one" or some "thing" to advise me to go to Radio Shack and look for my answers there. Not the case. I talked with a real human (Chris) and he was happy to help. He was very professional and pleasant to talk with. He hasn't been following this string of posts on the Audiogon Discussion Forum, but I suspect that he will. He stated that Legacy made their own coils and that they are tuned to very close tolerance. He seemed very proud of their exceptional quality and performance. I must agree. The quality is obvious ... that was the reason that I broke into these things. Chris stated that they do not use Kimber for their wiring anymore. Too bad. If nothing else it (the Kimber) looks impressive inside the box. They do (according to Chris) use an OFC, heavy gage stranded cable (at this point in time). The Legacy is, without a doubt, a sonic "world class" performer and is outstanding in it's use of material, design technique and workmanship. Perhaps the word work"women"ship should apply here. It is "Gladys" that builds (and supervises the building of) the crossover boards (although mine is signed by a former employee, "Connie", Gladys quite probably had a hand in it as well). I do like that kind of "personal" flavor. It seems odd to spend thousands for a speaker and not know who built it. Strange that audio is coming to that. Music, it's instruments and its makers are about art and personality (aren't they ?). Anyway ..... I hope that this information helps those that are looking to find a few answers. I am (imho) very impressed with Legacy (at least the ones that I have). The "boom and sizzle" comments along with the "cheap crate full of bad parts" rumor is just very wishful thinking for Legacy's competitors. These are fine instruments of artistic value, inside and out.

Tubby .......

Thank's everyone for your support on this fun journey into LegacyLand. (jmcgrogan2) My listening area is my living room. It is 15 x 20 x 8.5. The speakers are set at an angle along the "long" wall. They are spaced 7 ft apart and the angled distance from the wall is: (measured at the corners of the front edges) 49 inches on the outside edge and 43 1/2 inches on the inside edge.
I listen to just about all kinds of music. I like to have the system going at all times. My front end is a Rega Planet and a Sonographe SG-3 table. I am indeed fortunate that my partner in all of this is my wife. She loves music and keeps me on my toes if something does not "sound" quite right. I am older than dirt, and was raised with tubes and "monophonic". Back to the Legacy's. The power required for them seems to be a fairly moot issue. The quality of that power is an issue. The 50 watt Kora (that my friend brought by) was just stunning in its performance when mated with the Legacy's. It is a Tube unit. I use (at this time) a very musical and semi-powerful amp that is very "tube-like" in sound. It is the B&K ST-1400 Series II. With my Classic's I had (at the time) a Sim 4070se and a McCormack DNA 0.5 Deluxe. I was not pleased with either of these amps with the Classics. The amps were, however, superb when mated with other speakers. I was very impressed with the Sims detail at "low" levels and the McCormack was sweet and open (albeit a bit dry). I would like to try an amp with these that is not longer made. It is a N.E.W. DCA-33. I have heard this amp on a few occasions and it is just superb in it's control of the low end. It is 33 watts but sounds like 330. I have heard it with a verity of speaker and it is very solid and musical in it's presentation. If anyone has any experiance already with the Legacy/N.E.W. combo, please let me know you thoughs on it.

Tubby

I have some news on an excellent amp for use with the Legacy speakers. I have been searching for an amp that is fast, with good control of bass lines and liquid smooth in the mids and highs. The trouble is that it has to be cheap. Fixed incomes are torture for us old folks that like good equipment. The amp that I found is a real jewel. It is an intergrated, 100 watt per channel, all tube unit from Jolida. The model is the JD-1000a. It uses 8 EL-84's, 2 12ax7's and 2 12at7's. It is all that I had hoped for. It is smooth, open, controled and detailed without rasp or metalic edginess. It works wonders on my Legacy Convergence and should be just the ticket for anyone with other models. Since I just got it, I have to spend more time with it and will go into more detail, providing anyoone wants to hear more about the amp. The sure sign of a good amp for me, is when the music just dosen't come out into the room and involve you. It is when each individual instrument seems to pull on you to bring you into the space of the soundstage that it is in. Kind of like the Vulcan "mind meld' that Spock used to pull off when he couldn't be satisfied with a just normal answer to stupid questions about the universe.

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