The long end of the Schaumburg Convention Center houses three large expo halls with some pretty good size individual rooms on the second floor. These good sizes are prefect for manufacturers that need a little more space to show off more than one rig, or a wider range of product than just a single pair of awesome speakers. Its safe to say that these rooms, named after things like Nirvana, Euphoria and Utopia indeed contained some of their namesake for the inhabitants within. One such experience could be found in the Legacy room.
Packed with a total of five systems, the Illinois-local company had all the fixings of home sitting out for visitors to digest. Here’s a full rundown, direct from the room handout:
System #1
NEW Legacy VALOR in Natural Sapele Pommele/Black Pearl finish – $80,000/pr -Includes Legacy Wavelet, a DAC/Preamp/Crossover/Correction unit featuring Stereo Unfold Technology® Raven Audio Silhouette MK2 Monoblocks, 125wpc – $25,995/pr
System #2
Legacy Aeris in Walnut/Black Pearl finish – $19,525/pr as shown Calibre XD Monitors in Black Pearl finish – $7,230/pr as shown Legacy Wavelet, DAC/Preamp/Crossover/Correction unit – $4,950 Raven Audio Silhouette MK2 Monoblocks, 125wpc- $25,995/pr
System #3
Legacy Focus SE in Cabernet finish – $11,990/pr as shown Legacy Wavelet, DAC/Preamp/Crossover/Correction unit – $4,950 Raven Audio Shaman MK2 Monoblocks, 325wpc – $49,995/pair
System #4
Signature SE in Rosewood finish – $7,785/pr as shown Raven Audio Golden Eagle Integrated Amplifier, 75wpc – $6,595
System #5 (No Image)
Legacy Silhouette On-Walls in Rosewood finish – $4,390/pr as shown & Studio HD bookshelf speakers in Rosewood finish – $1,980/pr as shown Raven Audio Eagle Integrated Amplifier, 50wpc – $5,695
The system playing at the time during our listening session was #3 with the Focus SE in Cabernet. Audiophile favorites like Diana Krall rang out true to form, proceeded by a stalwart salute to Steve Ray Vaughn. Both showed off the finesse and and dynamics of the $12k speakers, with the former highlighting a well rounded approach to transparency and detail in the recreation of Diana’s almost-always well produced (and closely mic’d) vocals – most audiophile tracks from this artist offer up a very intimate experience in the midband. The final track was Jace Everett’s Bad Things which provided a lifelike statement for the lower, more raspy male vocal range.
But perhaps the bigger sound bite from the show comes courtesy of the #1 rig consisting of the newest Valor loudspeaker and the processor Wavelet. The system is a 4-way design utilizing 8 drivers of which the most notable is likely the tweeter, which is a “Dual 4” AMT bridge-mounted in post convergent array” according to the company site. The entire system offers an interesting room correction solution, similar (in idea at least) to what we saw from Gale Sanders new Eikon rig. Here is Legacy’s thinking from their site:
“The Valor system as a whole is about acoustic steering and making sure that both lateral and vertical information on the recording appears appropriately in the time domain. In a two stage process the Room Correction algorithm cleans up the early unwanted reflections from your room’s floor, ceiling and walls, thereby allowing the Stereo Unfold algorithm to restore the vectors encoded in the L/R information. The result is a clearer sound with more depth front to back and a more open and spacious soundstage. Localization is more precise as each performer seems to have their own dimensional space.”
The grand sum appears to be one of the last pieces of the final frontier for audiophiles – incorporating DSP into the mix. Purists may shudder, but landing as many sonic waves cohesively in the ear at the same time as possible does make for a tighter image. Room correction may not earn top billing on many enthusiasts’ checklist, but there are certainly limits to what can be physically modified to any room. Its a new horizon for some, but undoubtedly one we may see a lot more movement from in the very near future.