Legacy focus 20 20 speakers

I used to own a pair of the original Legacies. I struggled for a couple of years trying to get the speakers to sound right in my dedicated listening room. A very capable friend who is also a high-end cable manufacturer looked at the guts of the speakers and remarked at the abundance of low cost, off-the-shelf parts. Even after several upgrades of resisters, crossovers, and added baffling I couldn't live with the Legacies and replaced them with a pair of Avalon Radians. A huge improvement. Despite my loyalty to Bill Duddleston and his staff (all very nice people who provide excellent customer support), I realized their products are far from reference quality. They make very dynamic speakers with a lot of Wow Factor but little refinement or finesse.

Legacy Focus 20/20 is a good speaker, my dad owned them for 6 yrs and I spent alot of time with them aswell but as soon as he and I heard the Vandersteen Quatro the Legacy were up for sale.
Vandersteen matches all drivers, has twice the bass as Legacy (it is worlds better) and time and Phase accurate with no fatigue that Legacy can give you... but Vandy Quatro's standard version isnt all that great to look at but IT IS ABOUT PERFORMANCE (my dad bought the Wood Quatro which is beautiful but comes at a premium price.
Legacy has many fans and my dad for a time was one of them but you need to hear the Quatro, is blows the Focus 20/20, HD right out of the water, it also has powered woofers and 11 band bass EQ tuning so they can be optimized to most any room...have a listen.

Their explanation of the process is accurate with the expectation of taking turns off of inductors. I did that process at Allen Organ in 1999 using an RTA and my ear to adjust loudspeaker pairs so that there response was similar. If you open up a pair of legacy's you will most likely see that the parts on each crossover are not exactly the same. This is the only loudspeaker mfg. I have worked for so I don't know if the practice is common but any loudspeaker that I have owned and opened up I don’t see this. If you take the time to closely match the crossovers and drivers you eliminate the necessity for this step. What happens though when you closely match drivers is your rejection rate goes up, in think Dunlavy’s was above 50%, this increases costs etc. Logically the closer matched your drivers are the better off you are.

You are going to hear stories on both sides of this issue, which is to be expected on an open forum like this. Beware of people with their own agenda that might not be as objective as what you are looking for. The smartest thing you can do is to find a pair used, try them in your room and see how you like them. It would also not be a bad idea to try to talk to Duddleston - it can be done - and ask him your questions.

I have had a pair of 20/20s over 5 years now and a pair of Whispers for three and have had no speaker problems whatsoever.

You are also correct, the room treatment is very important and should absolutely be addressed as early on as possible. My room definitely changed with treatments, for the much better. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the additional input everyone. A good point about people may having an agenda Fplanner2000. When theirs more emotion that usful information in their comments, it may be an indication of some kind of an agenda, either for or against the product. I guess my next step is to audition a pair. Whatever speaker I wind up getting, one thing is certain. I do need some serious room treatment. Any help in that area would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps some literature that could quide me. I know some of this stuff is quite expensive. Whether its warrented or not I have know idea giving my limited knowledge of all of this. Unfortunatly my desire for good sound doesn't see eye to eye with my wallet. If theirs any snake oil out there, I cant afford to find out about it the hard way.