![](../images_200810/hd_ft_equipmentreview.jpg) June 2010
Legacy Audio
Studio HD Loudspeakers
![Reviewers' Choice Logo](../titles/rclogosm_noyear.gif) As
I listen to music through my trusty hi-fi, I wonder more and more
about the gap that may exist between the sound I’m hearing and the
sound heard by the artist, producer, engineer, and/or whoever pushed
and slid the controls on the mixing board, just before he or she
gave the thumbs-up and called it a wrap. Why a gap? Because the gear
such professionals use tends to be very different from that
available through your usual Hi-Fi Hut. For example, since
bulletproof reliability is a top requirement in the studio, tubed
equipment is rare. On the other hand, self-powered speakers are very
popular in professional arenas, acceptance of this technique in the
home being restricted in the most part to subwoofers.
Another difference
is philosophical. Again and again, we hear audio professionals
saying that they want to hear everything in the mix, which
suggests a need to hear the good
and the bad so that they
can shape the mixes of the sounds they’re presented with. But when
was the last time you saw a home speaker marketed this way?
There are exceptions, of course: those companies that have plenty of
street cred in both home hi-fi and professional circles, any short
list of which would have to include Legacy Audio.
Description
Audio engineer
Steve Hoffman. Producer Rick Rubin. Legacy Audio isn’t shy about
telling the world that these studio giants use Legacy speakers as
reference equipment. Nor does the company mince words in its
refreshingly rational statements about speaker cables and
amplification:
“There
are no perfect cables. The best way to approximate the ideal would
be to keep loudspeaker leads as short as practical.”
“Extensive
measures have been taken to ensure that each Legacy speaker system
represents a smooth, non-reactive load to virtually any amplifier.”
“Even through
decades of refinement, loudspeakers are still notoriously
inefficient transducers, requiring huge amounts of power to recreate
the impact of a live performance.”
In a nutshell,
Legacy speakers promise to be nontweaky, amplifier-friendly
transducers that can take the watts if you’ve got ’em, and this
holds true throughout their full range, from the top-of-the-line
Helix to the subject of this review, the entry-level Studio HD
($1385 USD per pair).
The Studio HD is a
stand-mounted, two-way, reflex speaker that measures 13”H x 10.8”W
by 10.8”D and weighs 28 pounds. I recommend placing them on stands
between 24” and 26” tall. The driver complement comprises a 1”
dual-pole, neo-ribbon tweeter with a folded Kapton diaphragm, and an
8”, Rohacell-reinforced woofer cone of Silver Graphite (carbon
fiber) on a cast frame. The frequency response is a claimed
41Hz-30kHz, +/-2dB. The Studio HD’s low-frequency reproduction is
aided by a flared, rear-firing port 2” in diameter. The impedance
and in-room sensitivity numbers are 4 ohms and 93dB, respectively,
and the recommended range of amplification is 25-200W.
Two-way speakers
are nice and simple, and ditto their crossovers; however, this
simplicity can demand a lot of the drivers. The Studio HD’s
crossover frequency of 2.8kHz requires that its tweeter cover a
range of just under 3kHz to over 30kHz. Conversely, the range of the
8” woofer must extend up to and slightly above 2.8kHz without
breakup, which is also difficult to achieve. Only
very-well-designed, high-quality drivers need apply.
The Studio HD is
attractively finished in a choice of Maple or Walnut veneer or
Piano-Black lacquer. The craftsmanship is outstanding: the HD is
finished on all outside surfaces, and the drivers are nicely
recessed so that their frames lie flush with the front baffle. In
addition to the port, the rear panel presents two pairs of
macho-size five-way binding posts for biwiring or biamping. The
tweeter and woofer posts come connected by a set of massive, copper
bus bars. I was very happy with this equipment; if I had a nit to
pick, it would be that it was hard to get a good grip on the
smoothly machined thumbscrews. For a tight connection, I used a
small pipe wrench.
Legacy provides
some room-effect adjustability by including, near the binding posts,
switches for bass and treble attenuation. The treble switch cuts 2dB
at 10kHz, the bass switch 2dB at 60Hz. The latter also effectively
raises the impedance, thereby aiding budget amps and receivers. I
found the sonic effect of this switch gear to be extremely subtle at
best, and heard little or no difference between their on and off
settings. I did most of my listening with the speakers set flat.
Strangely, the
grilles came packed in separate boxes attached to the outside of the
main shipping carton, which weighed about 60 pounds all told. Even
more curious, the foam cutouts that encase the speakers within the
carton seem shaped so that the speakers can be shipped with the
grilles already attached. As all things in this world that
can happen
will happen, sure enough,
each grille had evidently felt the full weight of the total shipment
at least once during the carton’s journey to my home, and so arrived
damaged. The grilles themselves are attractive, but fairly dulled
the sound, so I did most of my listening without them.
System
The Studio HDs
were connected to my reference NAD C 325BEE integrated amplifier
(50Wpc at 8 ohms) via double 10’ runs of my home-brew, solid-core
speaker cable, which I made by braiding three strands of hookup wire
from RadioShack. Fun to make, looks terrible, sounds fantastic! The
speaker stands were Quiklok BS-300s. Comparison speakers were my
Snell EIIs. Source signals were passed through Kimber PBJ
interconnects, mainly from my combo of Rotel RDD-980 CD transport
and Meridian 203 D/A converter. The digital link was a 2m length of
Canare Digiflex Gold 75-ohm coax cable. Headphones were Sennheiser
HD 600s. All electronics were plugged into hospital-grade
receptacles on a dedicated 20A circuit. My wood-framed listening
room measures 15”L x 12”W x 8”H and has two large, arched openings
in adjoining walls.
Use and listening
Out of the box,
the Studio HDs sounded a bit pinched at both ends of the audioband,
and needed a full week of playing before they fully opened up. When
they did, the change in their character was in no way subtle. These
speakers had a very extended and detailed treble -- I’ll go into
that in a bit, but once you hear it, you’ll know you’re listening to
something special. Using test tones, I found the HDs capable of
useful energy down to 30Hz or so, but below 40Hz the amplitude
dropped off fast, as you’d expect from a smallish reflex design. The
woofer sounded pretty flat throughout its range, with a bit of a
boost (perhaps 3-4dB) at 40Hz in my room. I ended up positioning the
speakers about 2’ from the sidewalls and 2’ from the front wall,
about 6.5’ apart. The speakers were toed-in ever so slightly toward
my listening position, which was 6.5’ from each speaker’s baffle.
When reviewing
gear, I like to listen to music I like -- not so much because I’m
familiar with it and so can better identify any differences in
reproduction (though I am and I can), but more because it relaxes
me. That’s right -- relaxed, off guard. I’ve found that only when
I’m in that state do I catch (or miss) those little bits of
information that elude me if I’m anxious, or straining to hear
something. I put on the Casino
Royale soundtrack (CD, Varèse Sarabande 302 066 409 2) and sat
back, waiting for Dusty Springfield to appear in my listening room
and purr “The Look of Love.” I’ve played this recording at least a
hundred times, and Dusty has always been in the room with me. Not
this time. Oh, Dusty was still Dusty, and her performance was
without equal, but it was obvious where she was: a recording studio.
I’d always imagined she’d recorded this track in a studio
(where else?), but for the first time, I could plainly
hear the space she was
singing in.
Too much
information? Not for me. Going forward four decades, Corinne Bailey
Rae’s eponymous first album (CD, Capitol CDP 3 66361 2) also
presented itself in a new way through the Studio HDs. Now that I
know it’s there, I could probably go back and hear through my Snells
the creaking chair at the beginning of “Like
a Star,” or the LP groove noise added to certain tracks, but
the Studio HDs presented this information as up-front and obvious.
In this way, the
Studio HDs were certainly behaving like the “studio monitors”
they’re marketed as. But as deft miners of information, how would
they sound with recordings I’ve found objectionable during listening
sessions for other reviews? Mostly depending on the speakers in my
system, I’ve had mixed experiences listening to Anonymous 4’s
An English Ladymass (CD,
Harmonia Mundi HMU 997080). While the Aperion Intimus 4T did much to
find the good in this recording, more upmarket speakers
(particularly the Totem Model 1) have been less kind to it. The
resolving power of the Studio HD also laid bare problems in this
recording -- though they suggested that there was too much energy in
the midtreble, rather than the distortion artifacts I’d "heard"
through the Totems.
While the Studio
HDs weren’t exactly warm, I never felt the need to turn up the bass
control, regardless of listening level. Bass was always there, and
nice and tight. Paul Chambers’ double bass in “So What,” from Miles
Davis’ Kind of Blue (CD, Columbia/Legacy CK 64935), was bouncy, articulate,
and pitch perfect. Bass was also in plentiful supply when needed,
the HDs conjuring convincingly low organ-pedal notes in
Saturn and Uranus, from
Holst’s The Planets, in
the recording by Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony (CD,
London 417 553-2).
But if the Studio
HD had a calling card, it must have been in how it handled the high
treble. Adding to my list of new experiences from well-worn
recordings, XTC’s “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkin Head,” from
Nonsuch (CD, Virgin
TOCP-65720), was a revelation. The HD removed veils and dug up
information from the mix that I had not known existed. In this case
the speaker gave me a veritable guided tour of this track’s
upper-octave percussion; the ability to clearly hear both a hi-hat
and the previously missing tambourine, fully differentiated and
played at the same time, put a big smile on my face. The change in
sound was at least as dramatic when I played Duke Ellington’s
Black, Brown and Beige
(CD, Columbia/Legacy CK 65566). The solo brass instruments were
pulled farther forward out of the mix than I’d heard before, while
the rhythm section was more recessed. The details that I know I
heard included the individual chuffs of the mouthpiece sounds
from the reed and brass players.
And if you love
the acoustic piano, you should definitely give the Studio HD a
listen. Never before had I heard a loudspeaker breathe so much life
into the instrument, whether it was Bill Evans (“So What”), Glenn
Gould playing Bach (CD, Sony Classical SMK 52596), or Antonio Carlos
Jobim on his great album Wave
(CD, A&M 0812).
Conclusion
I thought it would
be interesting to revisit my November 2009
GoodSound!
review of the Aperion Intimus 4T,
in hopes of learning just how two speakers so different in price and
execution could both lead to a positive listening experience. Of the
$650/pair 4T, I felt that its two overarching qualities were a
forgiving sonic signature matched by the alluring domestic
friendliness afforded by its small size and unfussy placement
requirements. At $1385/pair
excluding
the necessary stands, the
Studio HD requires an additional level of commitment from the
listener, in terms of both monetary outlay and care in setup. The HD
also has the ability to point out flaws in upstream electronics, so
be prepared to upgrade.
However, I think the rewards far outweigh the investment. Legacy
Audio’s Studio HD appeals to both the heart and the head. Its truth
of timbre helped the pair of them to convey the raw emotion of music
when it was there, a quality shared by the Aperions. The Studio HDs,
however, are in an entirely different realm when it comes to
conveying information that satisfies the intellect. Never once did I
find the Legacys fatiguing, or the information they presented
distracting. Instead, they took me places I’d never been before. I
enjoyed the ride every step of the way.
. . . Ron Doering
rond@soundstagenetwork.com
Legacy Audio Studio HD Loudspeakers Price: $1385 USD
per pair. Warranty: Seven years parts and labor.
Legacy Audio
3023 E. Sangamon Avenue
Springfield,
IL
62702
Phone: (800) 283-4644 Fax: (217) 544-4644
E-mail: info@legacyaudio.com
Website: www.legacyaudio.com
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