The Processor…
Apart from the speaker, but every bit as critical, is the “brain” of the Helix, the processor. This is a 24-bit digital processor, (Bill declined to publicize the manufacturer), providing to each stereo channel four bands of phase coherent Linkwitz-Riley filters, room contour adjustment and time adjustment. The unit has a 56-bit “accumulator”, which allows it to be adjusted by the dealer via a serial port. It also has a security lockout to protect settings. The take away point here is that you do not need to have technological skills to own the Helix. The processor comes with four “programs”; a program is a full setting for the speaker, you can pick whichever you like, or have your own made for you. If you want the program set up by Legacy, they can do so. If you futz with it and somehow erase it (not likely, since programs can be locked), Legacy can send it to your computer, and it can be transferred to the processor via an RS-232 connection on the back.
The Helix is kind to my ears, yet with devastating capabilities. Even at
One thing that must be made clear: The Legacy processor (as with all active crossovers) does the task of equalization, however they replace hard wired crossovers. In this case, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you rid yourself of the passive crossover inside a multi-driver speaker, you must treat the signals for the drivers with an external crossover, in this case a processor.
That means more cables for you to buy, in this case, four pairs. Considering that you likely already own two sets of interconnects, the four additional pairs for functionality of the Helix are employed as follows; three sets of balanced (XLR) interconnects for the treble, midrange and bass signals traveling from processor to amp channels, and one set of much longer balanced interconnects, which take the signal from the processor unamplified directly to the subwoofer input on the back of the speaker. The Helix’s internal IcePower amp uses that signal for the rear-firing sub. As might be assumed, three sets of speaker cables must attend the treble, midrange and bass outputs from the amp to the speakers.
I want to emphasize that the quality, or purity, of signal treatment from the Helix is quite improved over a traditional speaker. Not having an identical Helix speaker with an internal, passive crossover (Legacy has previously made such a special order version) for comparison, I cannot comment absolutely about any positive or negative contribution by the processor. I absolutely do not have a sense of diminishment in quality with the use of the active crossover. Quite the contrary, the result is so good that it makes me wonder why aren’t more Hi-Fi speaker manufacturers working with active crossovers?
low levels it displays formidability. It has the presence of a Titan; no
Huge Speaker in a Smaller Room?
How large a speaker would you entertain placing in a room with dimensions of 23 x 13 x 7.5 feet? Many would default to good sized monitors on stands. If you were going to go over the top, you might consider a modest planar, or daresay a floor stander about four feet high. While that may be “pushing it” in the minds of some, I’ll tell you what’s pushing it – a nearly two-meter behemoth weighing 320 lbs! The Helix is so big that its hulking frame sits approximately one foot from both the sidewalls and the ceiling of my room! It is accurate to say it’s been shoehorned into place.
matter where you are in relation to it, the shadow it casts sonically
So modest is my accommodation, and so gratuitous this speaker, that I checked with Bill twice on the feasibility of using them in such a space. In bringing in such a prodigious speaker into my room, I felt like I was violating a fundamental law of the universe: Never use a huge speaker in a small room. I had never seen such a law written indelibly, but I believed it to be true. It is not uncommon for an audiophile to suspect that limitations (set by room size, layout, etc.) exist and as a consequence rule out some permutations of gear a priori. Oh, what a joyous experience to find out how wrong I was! The Helix flat out works and works dazzlingly well in my room! This leads me to question other supposed “infallible rules” of audio.
encompasses you.
How can such a hulking speaker work in a diminutive space? Wouldn’t its powerful projection ricochet off the walls and decimate any sense of correctness to the sound?
The smaller room actually plays to Bill’s design very well; he wanted the Helix put to the test in a modest space in order to reveal one of its great strengths: image focus. The Helix keeps the presentation locked onto the listener, and does not allow it to roam and interact detrimentally with the room.
Rosy Grier was a defensive lineman for the Giants and the Rams; and
There are two key elements to keeping the speaker less interactive with the boundaries. One aspect is the configuration of the forward-firing 15” bass drivers; one in an upper open baffle, and the other in a lower, sealed enclosure in the cabinet. The center of the array is coincident with the tweeter, and the bass drivers are time corrected to offset the typical, 5-millisecond lag of such large drivers. According to Bill, “The summation of the figure-of-eight and the spherical omni patterns results in a directional cardioid pattern well down into the room pressurization frequencies, where the sub takes over.” In other words, the two drivers form a heart-shaped dispersion with a shallow back, which does not react as much with the head wall behind them. This makes for more clarity of bass in the front, where the listener is.
he did needlepoint. Like Rosey, these speakers can do delicate, but if
The other trick to keeping the radiation pattern of the drivers away from the side walls, ceiling, and floor is to put the narrower dispersion high frequency dual tweeters in the middle of the four splayed midrange drivers. Bill explains that these 6” drivers are spaced and angled to prevent sidewall and floor reflections, “summing maximally on axis and gradually attenuating as you move off axis.” The listener is in the sweet spot of the sum of the drivers, while they are angled so as not to bounce directly off the ceiling, floor or side walls.
you laugh, they’ll break your bony behind in half!
These technologies seem to be both logical and effective. I cannot speak for how the Helix would sound in an environment with a preponderance of hard surfaces, but in a modest, tuned room with carpeting it conducts itself with aplomb that many a smaller speaker has not achieved. I had to work to control the bass of the much more diminutive Wilson Benesch Curve speakers. I struggled to contain the treble of the Von Schweikert VR-4 SR MkII and even the Tannoy Glenair. I have had no operational issues to correct with the Helix, despite it having a twin tweeter set, eight mids and four 15” bass drivers!
Maybe it’s not a curse that I can’t afford these. I am succumbing to the
One reason I so enjoy the high frequency reproduction of the Helix is due to the tweeters having silk diaphragms. They are also loaded individually into a short flare, which lowers distortion by raising output in the forward plane. A vertical “dividing blade” prevents comb filtering off-axis at frequencies where the waves are less than one-inch long. All of the other drivers are not covered, except with the tweeters.
This is an interesting technique, which to my ear is preferable to many tweeter designs I have heard. I rather enjoy the open mid and lower drivers while the tweeter is behind a “veil”. It sounds as though the tweeter is at the correct intensity level. So many times I want edto tone down the output of tweeters, as I felt they could distract from the other drivers. With some speakers, I have tried homemade solutions to take the edge off their seemingly disproportionate output. To my ears, the tweeters of the Helix have an excellent physical arrangement to let the tweeter’s electronic properties operate correctly.
ageless temptation to be at a concert every time I listen. I keep turning
What a Huge Speaker Brings to the Party
When I first entered high-end audio, it did not take me long to determine what is for me an Adage of Superb Sound: The size of the speaker determines much of the involvement in listening to music. Two times in the past I pursued monitor and subwoofer systems, neither time finding long-term satisfaction. Over the years, my fascination with floor standers of stunted height has waned; they all sound small and low to the floor to me. For that reason, they struggle to sound true to life. In many respects, they may sound similar to live music, but without the scale brought by a huge speaker they are diminished.
it up, to get that sense of being there. I could go deaf doing that!
Thinking back on the speaker systems I have heard or owned which most moved me, they have always been, unfailingly, larger ones. I think a significant reason audiophiles like planars is that they generate a scale disproportionate to competitively priced dynamic speakers. One of my motivations in pursuing a “stacked” Eminent Technology LFT-8A speaker system several years ago was for the same reason – scale. A factor in the purchase of the Legacy Audio Focus HD speakers I reviewed was their size; they can do “big” music well – they have wonderful scale for a moderately priced full-range speaker.
I like showing guests into the listening room. When they first see
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