VERSATILE
The V speaker arrives in a custom crate and has explicit instructions. The Manual is 43 pages long and includes a lengthy discussion of room interaction and psychoacoustics (imagine the length of this article if I expounded about psychoacoustics!) as well as removal and setup of the speakers. A series of pictures accompanies the Owner’s Manual to guide the process. A hard case is included, which contains a measurement microphone, a 25’ XLR cable and a microphone calibration plot. The Wavelet uses a specialty 5-pin 115V AC power cable. It cannot accept a typical 15A or 20A IEC power cord. However, the DC power supply for the five-pin cable can be upgraded with an aftermarket power cord having a C7 IEC plug. I tried one of my PS Audio Jewel PCs with the C7 plug and it enhanced the system a degree or two, worth the nominal cost and effort. Legacy also supplies a simple Hypex brand remote used solely for volume control once the itch to tweak the sound has been scratched. Finally, included is a USB B Micro USB cable, Wi-Fi network connector and a Sandisk USB memory stick. The USB stick is used in the online setup process that is painstakingly laid out in the Owner’s Manual. The Micro USB cable is used to connect the owner’s computer or media server/streamer to the Wavelet for updates.
The V towers are imposing at 72” tall, 18.75” wide, 19” deep and weighing 226 pounds each. Bill describes the cabinet construction: “The V is a combination of MDF, aluminum extrusions and milled aluminum parts. The front baffle assembly is nearly 2” thick, with aluminum stiffening rails down the full length. The cabinet is trapezoidal front to back and angled at the base. None of the internal walls are parallel. The cabinet is open air for the 14” and 6” drivers, the upper 12” (woofer) is sealed and the lower 12” sub utilizes the cubic volume in the rear of the enclosure. Outriggers stabilize the cabinet position with leveling cones.” The top 14” driver is open entirely to the back, while the lower 14” driver is ported to the sides of the speaker through the triangular shaped section covered with grill cloth material. The midrange drivers are fed by 14 gauge stranded copper wire, and the 12” bass drivers with 12 gauge stranded copper. The V might appear more delicate than some other models, but it is massively overbuilt.
Each cabinet houses dual AMT (Air Motion Transformer) ribbon tweeters that together have thirty times the piston area of a 1” dome tweeter. They are configured in what the Owner’s Manual calls “post convergent array.” This is the V for which the speaker is named, a V-shaped configuration of the ribbons sitting horizontally, tucked behind their small, grill cloth covered compartment. Taking a flashlight to the side grill cloth area it appeared as though the silver conductors to the tweeters were no more than 16 gauge.
Legacy V – V tweeter array
Bill describes the effect of the positioning: “The listener is in a post convergent position, with the left tweeter covering the right side of the pattern, and the right most tweeter covering the left side of the pattern. The advantages of this arrangement are prevention of vertical beaming, greatest intensity projected on the listening axis (this is true for all the drivers in the V), and mutual coupling at lower treble frequencies, which improves radiation impedance.” I chuckled to think that Bill, who likes crossing the speakers just ahead of the listener, built that feature into the speakers themselves. I tend to flare speakers a bit wide of the respective ear, but Legacy makes you hear it their way with the crossed over driver technique.
I was sure the speaker had been named for Victoria, Bill’s daughter, who joined the Legacy team as Marketing Director about two years ago. If you have noticed, Legacy’s advertising has taken a leap in terms of quality, that’s Victoria’s work. With the new designs coming out of the shop there is plenty to promote. While on the topic of the “V”, kudos to the team at Legacy for contributing such an aesthetically inviting speaker to the community. With the black piano finish front baffle, textured powder coated aluminum side rails, contrasting smooth metal channel “V” integral base and illuminated “V” logo to accentuate the down lighting under the front of the speaker, the V is technology presented in a seductive fashion. The design holds a retro-modern aesthetic reminiscent of the 1940’s; I could see Captain America sitting down in front of these speakers. Looking at the V one gets a similar sensation as spying a concert grand piano; fields of glassy, darkly opaque reflectivity encasing sheer muscularity, which in the right hands holds the potential to create a highly emotional event. That it was designed for level-unlimited play is evident. Fit and finish on the review pair was impeccable.
Rounding out the edges of the V are the gently curved top arc of the front baffle, a rich, rosewood veneer with satin finish side paneling (12 other finishes available; see the website), and the grill cloth covered rear compartment that Legacy loves to employ. The grill on the back of the V is removable, but I did not find an easily discernible difference in the music when doing so. A nice foil to the lower cabinet’s V-shaped contour is the inverted, industrial chic V flying buttress legs with heavy machined adjustable spikes. The rear legs terminate in shapely, oversized flying saucer rimmed footers with heavy rubber feet that allow for adjustment of the front baffle slope, a forward slope, which the owner will want to try. It was not feasible for me to push on the cabinet with one arm at an awkward angle while bending down to adjust them, so I took the easy way out. I procured some 3/8” thick, 2” round furniture carpet sliders, flipped them over and placed them next to the footers, and while leaning the speaker forward used my feet to scoot them under the rear flying saucer legs! Who says you can’t get adjustments done with big speakers; all it takes is a bit of creativity!
Driving me crazy
The V impresses with the boldness of its driver complement. Atop sit the twin 14” mid-bass paper carbon/pulp, neodymium motor, cast frame drivers in a dipolar arrangement. Beneath reside the “V” dual AMT ribbons, then the dual 6” upper midrange curvilinear drivers with phase plugs configured in dipolar array, followed by a 12” Aluminum Aura bass driver with neodymium magnet which articulates the low frequencies, ensconced in its own sealed enclosure, and finally the 12” Aluminum LF radiator driving three 10” mass loaded pneumatic radiators. Two of these radiators are located on the back of the speaker while the third fires downward from the speaker’s base, a nod to the Helix. The crossovers for this 4-way speaker are set at 80Hz, 400Hz and 3kHz.
One of the subtle but effective techniques used by Legacy in the V is the curvilinear nature of both the 6” Mid and 14” Mid-bass diaphragms. Bill explains: “Lesser drivers have straight wall diaphragms (funnel-like). By making the cone wall curve progressively from the center outward it can act more ideally as a wave guide, expanding as the wave progresses forward.” The curvature had escaped my gaze initially, but is discernible when scrutinizing the drivers. This feature may explain partially why I sense the V has characteristics of a fine horn speaker. After all, it is employing a variant of wave-guide technology much as a horn speaker would. When complementing a fine system one might say that it “gets out of the way of the music” and in the case of the V’s drivers it is true literally as they recede slightly from the wave launch the further from the epicenter they extend.
Amplification matters
I love to see tight specifications, and the V’s are among the best in the industry; frequency response 16Hz – 30kHz +/-2dB, sensitivity of 98dB, and nominal Impedance of 4 ohms on the upper range for which the user supplies amplification. The bass driver is internally powered by 500wpc, and the subwoofer is internally driven by 1,000wpc, both utilizing ICEpower Class D amplification. ICEpower emerged from the mind of Karsten Nielson who was hired by B&O (Bang and Olufsen) about twenty years ago to improve the bandwidth of class D amps to make them suitable for high-end audio applications. The newer generation of these products, the 700ASC that is used in the V speaker, has vanishingly low distortion levels, bandwidth from 1Hz to 100kHz, 83% efficiency and 30 amps of peak current in addition the claim of having the industry’s highest reliability in class D amps. The V has on the backside 2 pairs of Legacy’s own robust but widely spaced – standard spaced dual banana connectors won’t fit – binding posts, and XLR only inputs for the woofer and subwoofer.
When I reviewed the Whisper I requested that it have no internal amplification, as I wanted full control of the performance of the bass. I believe that was a good move since I have been able to contour the speaker’s performance by use of varied amps and cables. The V is a different story because it requires four channels of amplification per speaker. For owners it would be a burden too much to procure eight channels of amplification. Besides potential weight, space and potentially power outlet or cable considerations, higher multiples of amp channels could price the speaker beyond the reach of all but truly rich audiophiles.
It is a very good move on the part of Legacy to make the V a hybrid, with four of those channels internally powered. This cuts the expense of amplification dramatically. Consider that if the owner had to provide those four channels of premium class D amplification for the bottom end of the speaker it might easily cost an additional $3-6K per speaker. Moving to higher end solid state or tube amplification for the four channels could elicit a $10-20K price tag. This must be remembered when contemplating purchase of the V. It is a speaker that begs for quality associated gear and implementing the subwoofer and bass amplification internally saves considerable additional outlay of cash. As will be seen below, the brain of the V Speakers, the Wavelet, is an integrated device of such caliber that seeking separate components with the same functionality could conservatively set you back another $20K.
This was confirmed by my colleague Ed Momkus who in his article, “Rebuilding My Music Room, Part 2,” said of the Wavelet, “this device can easily replace my MBL 1611 F DAC, Lyngdorf RP-1 room correction device and BSG Technologies QOL Signal Completion device (collectively over $35k retail) without any loss of fidelity, not to mention the savings in interconnects.” I quote this not to suggest that pairing the Wavelet with a passive speaker will give the owner performance approaching the V; it won’t. To use the Wavelet as intended with a passive speaker one would have to disconnect the speaker’s drivers from the internal passive crossover, and Legacy Audio would have to recalibrate the filters in the Wavelet for each of the speaker’s drivers. Alternatively, the signal could be passed though the Wavelet with its filters flattened (having minimal effect) and the passive crossovers of the speaker still operating. That presents dual signal treatment, far from an ideal setup. Still, Ed’s feeling about the worth of the Wavelet’s functionality does confirm my independent assessment (I had not conferred with Ed on this topic). I figure the benefit of the matched internal amplification, preamp and DAC functionality of the Wavelet is worth at a bare minimum $10K. I believe you would have to spend approximately $30K on electronics to give a passive version of the V, if it were available, a chance to compete with the active version. I discuss more about system cost and the value of the V later in this review.
Duplicate sets of cables for RCA or XLR interconnects from the Wavelet to the external amps are required, as are four longer XLR cables – the inputs on the speakers themselves are only XLR – to link the Wavelet’s bass and subwoofer outputs to their destinations at the rear of the speaker. Legacy has the necessary professional audio grade cables available if you do not wish to pursue aftermarket cables. I used a Legacy supplied XLR pair for the subwoofers, but used Clarity Cables Organic XLR cables on the bass drivers. Do not let the multiplicity of cables throw you off; cables are not to be the reason you decide whether to buy the V. Decide on the merits of the V, then pursue whatever level of cabling you can. Wires can always be upgraded later. When the finances allow, cables used with as exceptional a speaker system as the V should be carefully considered. I strongly recommend you avoid passively networked cables in any HiFi system.
Heading into this review I was concerned about the internal amplification. Based on what I had heard previously of ICEpower amplification it didn’t meet my expectations for performance. Now, having spent considerable time with the V, I am ready to lay those concerns to rest. I am not struggling with the color or weight of the lower end of the frequency spectrum. I do not secretly wish to rip out the amps and supply my own.
Informal confirmation has been forthcoming through the use of the Red Dragon S500 amplifiers, Class D in operation, with the midrange and treble of the V. With the Red Dragons there is no gulf of quality between the top and bottom portions of the speaker. Bill and company successfully implemented the internal amplification at a quality level that will not be embarrassed by any user-supplied amps for the top end of the speaker. In fact, working with the V has made me a believer in ICEpower, and I owe Bill a humble, “You were right!” In the performance tug of war between active and passive speakers the V has violently yanked me over to the internally powered, Pro-inspired side.
[End of Part 1]
Copy editor: Dan Rubin
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