Have you phoned the Legacy people and asked them what they thought? |
I have a pair of Legacy 20/20 Focus Speakers and biamp using the Mcintosh 352 on the bottom and the Mcintosh tube 2102 on the top with great results. The 20/20 is a great improvement over the previous Focus. For even better control of the bottom you may want to use an outboard crossover or the Legacy Steradian depending on your room effects with the bottom end. Two 352's would also give you great results. |
Why not try their monoblock amps? They are very nice sounding and may mate well with their speakers.
Contact me as I have a friend who is selling a pair of them. |
I spoke to legacy, of course they want to sell amps so they love the idea, I guess I have a been there done that attitude and want something new. They think biamping is an excellent idea and would open the speakers up a lot. Not sure if I need to spend the money on two amps. The focus are very efficient speakers, and they might just do better with a class a, with more power...as always, I am learning here and all comments are appreciated. |
One 352 will also do a great job with the Focus . Try one amp and see if you like it. You will. |
Dave, I am using a Krell FPB-600c with my Legacys and this is a great combination. I agree, one good amplifier should do the job for you. You also might want to look at Bob Carver's Sunfire Signature II amp. A friend of mine has one and is totally thrilled by its sound and performance with the Focus. |
Hello Dave,
I have a pair of Legacy Classics that I have biamped and monoed. I can't speak for the Focus but I prefer my Classics in a biamp arrangment. I used a pair of Adcom 565 monos for about a year and never did really like them as much as I did using 4 channels of a Parasound 805. I have replaced the Adcoms with two 2200II Parasounds and like them very much. Everything just seems tighter and cleaner all the way through the musical range. The amps of which you ask about are all more expensive and considered by most to be superior to the Parasounds so I suspect your results will improve even more than mine. |
I have the Whispers and prefer bi-amp to single amping. That lets you get the Steradian (Step One) of the the signal path for the highs with that speaker. Even without that consideration, bi-amping the Whispers sounds better. I use four Bryston 7Bs. I also think the Legacy amps sound great with Legacy speakers, at least as good, if not better than my Brystons. The Ultra Monoblocs sound very good indeed, especially for the price. |
I own a pair of the Foci. Have you considered tube amps. I went thru the same process. I think biamping would be a subtle change. For the heck of it, a friend hooked up a low powered tube amp(30 wts/ch). I was blown away by the transformation of the speakers and sound. The amps even played very loud without any sign of strain. The change between SS and tube amps was night and day. The SS amp I used was OCM, a highly regarded amp by David Belles which I had been happy with. Just something to think about. My recommendation would be to audition PP tube amps like VTL, Manley,Wolcott,Atmosphere. Enjoy listening. |
My Legacy Focus are about 6 years old. I have single wired and bi-wired. Have used amps from Yamaha, Acurus, Parasound[2200II], Proceed Amp5, and now Krell KAV1500. Never noticed any real improvement in the bi-wire but they sure do work great with a lot of power. There are a lot of drivers in those cabinets and my experience has been if you want them to perform at volume----give 'em plenty of juice. |
11/30/02,Hamlet
Hi,Dave
I tried to bi-amp my martin logans but I did not see real improvement.Any way I am not going to keep this speakers because I do not like passive system.I had my active system in Europe(Austria)but when I moved to states I sold It to my best friend who asked me many times to by it.Now I am getting ready to put something like that together.I do not know any thing about legacy focus speakers but, I would say do not bi-amp your speakers unless you want to change it to active speakers.You are going to need a three way electronic crossover and two 4B SST. One for tweeters and one for midrange and use your 14B SST for your woofers.And It will be your last upgrade forever. Good luck and have a fun with music. |
I HAVE A PAIR OF LEGACY FOCUS 20/20'S THAT I AM DRIVING WITH THE KRELL FPB600. THE NOMINAL IMPEDANCE ON THE LEGACY SPEAKER IS 4 OHMS. THIS IS AN EASY LOAD FOR THIS AMP AND THE OUTPUT IS 1200 WATTS ON THIS IMPEDANCE. CONSIDERING THE SPEAKER EFFICIENCY RATING OF THE LEGACY SPEAKER AND COUPLING IT WITH AMPLIFIER POWER THAT THIS KRELL AMP DELIVERS, THE SOUND CAN BE DESCRIBED AS,TREMENDOUSLY DYNAMIC, REALISTIC, AND DETAILED. THE SOUND IS ALSO RELAXED WITH A SMOOTHNESS ACROSS THE ENTIRE AUDIO BAND THAT PREVENTS LISTENER FATIGUE AT ALL POWER LEVELS. FOR MY TASTE, AND CONSIDERING THE AMOUNT OF EQUIPMENT THAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH, THIS IS A COMBINATION THAT I AM VERY PLEASED WITH. |
I went through the same thing you're doing now. I liked the Legacy monoblocks over the Bryston 7bst's. The Bryston's had great control on the bottom, excellent bass,but they were a tad harsh on the top end. The Legacy's were a little more of what I was looking for. They were a little less harsh on the top but lost a little on the bottom octaves. I tried the Moon's and fell in love with them. They are a little on the warmer side which I feel the Focus need. Good luck in your search. I think you're heading in the right direction. My system really came to life when I started up-grading my electronics. |
