Legacy 20/20 and Tubes

If a 3 octave bass plateau that starts at 300 Hz and levels out at 40 Hz with a +7 dB peak centered at 100 Hz combined with a +4 dB peak at 6 KHz, a -3 dB dip at 9 KHz and another big +8 dB peak at appr 12 KHz with horrible transient response factored in is someone's idea of a perfect world, i think that i have a VERY different idea of what "perfection" is. Obviously, the "Cerwin-Vega Sound" has had a bigger influence on the audiophile market than i thought it did. Sean
>

PS... All test results & measurements were taken from the January 2004 Stereophile review of the Legacy 20/20. If you want the truth, learn how to read and interpret unbiased test results, not the sales hype that some call a "review".

PPS... Bare in mind that Legacy posted a copy of this review on their website without contradicting or even a single comment trying to refute how non-linear Stereophile's measurements were. Given the amount of rave reviews that Legacy products have garnered over the years, ALL of them from publications that lack testing facilities, you have to wonder just how "golden eared" these reviewers really are!?!?!?

Transporter, I couldn't agree more.

As a very proud owner of the 20/20, listen for yourself; throw out any measurements someone publishes if you like what you hear go with it.

Being in the car business, you see this all the time with road tests. Car A beats car B in measurements, but car A actually stinks. Take them both to a track and B, sure enough, stomps A.

Here's a good way to tell...Anyone NOT happy with their Legacies? I have toured their plant and must say it is impressive how hand built and finished these things are. If you have a quality issue, call them direct. They are a small company, if you call them a second time, you can get the same person, and they remember you - that is nice.

It seems only Sean doesn't like Legacy, and he continually refers to the measurements from one review. A review, by the way, in which the reviewer praised the Focus in the text (regardless of measurements...if you actually read the review).

I had a pair of 20/20's in my home for a two week demo in June of '04. I ran them with an ARC sp16l pre, Manley-Neo Classic 250 tube mono's on the top and an Aragon 8008bb on the bottom, I won't bother listing all the gear. I did not run them with either the Manley's or the Aragon solo. After one week, I could stand it no more! I yanked them out and put my PSB Stratus Gold's back into service. My system is much different now, but I feel compelled to chime in here. I just HAD to demo these speaks after the rave review in Stereophile. Sean is right on the money and I am not a Legacy basher. They were pretty and seemed to be well built, but pretty doesn't always sound good. And from a functional standpoint, I didn't care for the layout of the binding posts or the posts themselves, somethiing I feel is important on a 6k+ speaker. But these speakers were so shrill and fatiguing that after 20 minutes, my ears were cooked, everytime.
And it wasn't just me, two other friends felt the same way.

It appears that, as so often happens, when a question is asked here about Legacy Focus speakers, the bashers take over and the discussion turns to their opinions about the sound quality of these speakers. I thought what Taters was asking was whether his ARC tube amp and pre-amp would mate well with the 20/20's.

If one reads the Stereophile review(available on the Legacy Audio website) and looks at the Measurements section, one can see that despite their relatively high sensitivity, these speakers present a difficult impedance load to an amplifier with 2 modes of less than 2 ohms at frequencies under 100 Hz. The reviewer suggests that SS amp with high current capability would be a better choice than a tube amp.

I have owned the original Focus since 1992, mostly driven with an Eagle 4 SS amp which was capable of putting out 50 amps into low impedances, and now use Legacy's PowerBloc 2 and Steradian processor, with good results.

My suggestion would be to call Legacy Audio and discuss the issue. However, personally, I would recommend either using a single SS amp with high current capability, or consider biamping using a SS amp for the bass section and your ARC on the upper drivers. The 20/20 does have biamp connectors.

Having owned Legacy speakers since 1987, the original Legacy 1's(now the Classics), the original Signatures, and now the Focus, I remain ignorantly happy with my choices. Since Legacy has stayed in business for 25 years, I guess they have other satisfied customers as well.

There is an ongoing thread on this forum regarding the Best Speaker You Have Ever Heard. If there is any general consensus, I can't seem to find it. So, listen for yourself and view others' opinions with skepticsm, including the golden-eared reviewers....and me.