A rising tide lifts all boats
It doesn’t matter if it is an ocean liner or a dingy, if the tide rises, so does the watercraft. Similarly, when it comes to musical reproduction the enhancement of internal wiring and capacitors in the Clarity Edition elevates all genres of music. As aforementioned, the bass impact was viscerally increased, but also the palpability and cleanness of bass lines improved markedly. David Fink is the acoustics bass player on Philippe Saisse Trio’s The Body and Soul Sessions. On “Lovely Day,” a remake of Bill Withers’ feel good tune, there is such a tactile sensation to the bass that visualizing it is nearly an autonomic event, the mind effortlessly seeing it.
I stated that the coherence of the four midrange drivers has improved, largely due to the insertion of the new Legacy Dual Air Motion Tweeter system. Looking at the speaker in the passively crossed mode, the 1-inch ribbon super-tweeter operates from 5kHz – 30kHz and begins to roll off at 8kHz as it hands off via a third order crossover to the 4-inch ribbon tweeter with a range of 5kHz – 1,250kHz. Another third order crossover lies between this ribbon and the quad of 7-inch dynamic drivers operating from 1,300kHz down to 200Hz.
The bass drivers are more complex, consisting of a quad of 15-inch forward firing and one 12-inch rear firing drivers. Between the 7-inch mid-bass drivers, there is a very shallow sloped 4th order crossover leading to the drivers which produce the lowest bass. The front-most top and bottom 15-inch bass drivers are in series and cross with the 7-inch Mid-Bass drivers at about 100Hz. The rear 12-inch driver is in parallel with the back most 15-inch drivers. A coil before the 12-inch rear-firing bass driver reduces its effective range from approximately 60Hz down to 20Hz. This rear driver performs two functions; it reinforces the LF while simultaneously partially cancelling peaks from the 15-inch drivers.
The DSW version of the Whisper allows the owner to switch to active crossover mode if so desired. As such the polarity of the speaker can be changed when the Wavelaunch Processor is in use. Legacy has found that while a speaker may measure more perfectly when in polarity, it may not sound as good to the ear. Portions of the drivers may benefit from reversing the polarity. The bass drivers are typically kept in positive polarity, but the upper end of the speaker is put into negative polarity! I intended to report on the operation of the speaker in active crossover mode at a future date as I use it for reviews.
From a listener’s perspective, whatever compartmentalization had been attributable to the driver sets all but disappears with the Clarity Edition. When I move between the King III ESL and the Clarity Edition Whisper, sometimes I keep in use the same electronics. Recently, I had been running the Simaudio Moon Evolution 750D DAC/Player into the Pass Labs XP-20 Preamplifier and the Pass X600.5 Mono Amplifiers, reviews to come. Previously, there had been a noticeable drop in absolute clarity and articulation when switching from the ESL to the Whisper, as would be expected since the diaphragm of the ESL is so much lighter and faster than a dynamic speaker.
Once the Clarity upgrade was performed and the AMT installed, the clarity gap was fairly eliminated except for the lowest of bass. The most vivid restructuring of the soundstage was evident; the vast but diffused soundstage was now tightened by a foot or so on top and bottom, residing more solidly in the zone of the 7-inch driver sets. As density of a photocopier can be increased, the density of the images was increased from being akin to a bubble-jet printout as heard via the King III to laser-jet-like solidity with the Clarity Edition Whisper.
The AMT has brought a revelatory benefit to the treble, as it didn’t sound poor until the AMT upgrade was heard! Again, in comparison to the King III ESL, the pre-upgrade Whisper lacked the delicacy of the electrostatic speaker. Though the previous 4-inch magnetic planar mid-tweeter could hardly be called poor, listening to the same music with the AMT took only seconds to show the uptick in perceived speed and crispness.
Bill seemed especially gleeful over the finding that there has been an approximately 2dB dynamic increase in the speaker’s output due to the Clarity upgrade. If a product uses parts suitable for the application, then there isn’t supposed to be a dramatic improvement just by putting in fancier parts. Theory holds that good-enough parts will sound just as good as higher-end parts. While it cannot be said that better parts will always result in superior sound, here is a verifiable example of the benefit of better parts! Only the tweeters were changed in this speaker, all the other original drivers retained. Yet, the speaker has seen a 2dB improvement!
I am not the only one
Do you respect Chris VenHaus of VH Audio? If so, then consider that he also has done an upgrade to the internal wiring and capacitors of his set of Whisper XD speakers! I have heard his set of Whispers and they are compelling. In fact, when I auditioned his system, I concluded that his pair of Whispers had eclipsed the stock speaker, and that convinced me to pursue the internal cable upgrade suspecting it would transform my set as it had his.
Here was a man who had reached a similar conclusion regarding the efficacy of internal wiring and had the means to act upon it. I was in a position to conduct independent exploration of the topic. Why did I not use VH Audio’s products in the speakers? Chris and I live fairly close to each other and soon after meeting, became friends. Early on we mutually agreed that conducting a review of his products would introduce a conflict of interest. However, focusing on a method which I could check independently would not introduce a conflict.
Now, the reader whose aim it is to seek out this new Whisper is confronted with a dilemma: which of these two cable brands makes for a better Whisper? I have no clue as I have never used VH Audio cables. As well, Chris’s system and room are so different from mine that to draw a direct comparison would be inappropriate. However, you now have evidence of two industry insiders pursuing internal wiring upgrades in order to achieve ultimate performance with the Whisper. Without speaking for the man, I believe Chris is quite pleased with the results of his upgrade of the stock speaker. I certainly have found pleasure in the Whisper Clarity Edition and deem the changes to the speaker highly efficacious.
What does it cost?
Legacy Audio does not stock the Clarity Cable internal wiring, so it must be procured from Clarity Cable by the order; the material cost of the internal wiring for this upgrade is $1,250. The labor cost of the rewire at Legacy Audio, processor upgrade, crossover changeout, and the new AMT tweeters is $3,250 excluding shipping.
As to the question of the worth of this upgrade, aside from shipping it represents 25% additional to the MSRP of the Whisper HD, and 21.5% increase to the Whisper XD. The improvement qualitatively in performance is far greater than the cost differential. Any one of these three, wiring, crossover, or driver set would be efficacious. However, all three compound the improvement effectively making the Clarity Edition Whisper a new product. If an owner were considering an amp or cable upgrade, I strongly suggest that the Clarity Edition upgrade be done first, as it will not only improve the performance of the amp or cables, but put one in a position to better assess any other component upgrades.
What is the audiophile community waiting for?
Why hasn’t the utilization of fine wiring and upper end elements inside speakers been implemented previously? In a word, economics, but the audiophile community has always been guilty of a high percentage of hobbyists not recognizing the profound benefit of high quality wiring. When it is believed, either from theory or received wisdom, that merely adequate internal components suffice, then such construction leads to a design and execution which is not fully optimized. Through this collaboration, Legacy Audio is moving forward with an ultimate expression of its designs and Clarity Cable is once again proving it elevates performance beyond “good enough” wiring. I can only hope that other manufacturers respond in kind as the entire community can only benefit.
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I just read how much Jeff Day spent(over $10,000 if my memory is correct) to upgrade Durland capacitors in the crossover on his Tannoys. Now as I read how much it cost to upgrade the wire here and you haven’t even approached adding Durland capacitors that would surely push the price pass $30,000; I’m so thankful to own single driver speakers. There is no wire or caps to upgrade. Just use the best speaker wire you can get straight to the driver. Oh, for simple pleasures. Well, I’ll have to admit that my speaker cables do cost nearly $10,000
Jack,
The Joy of God to you,
It’s a good thing there is so much variety available nowadays to the audiophile. I think I would struggle mightily if the only technology available to me was a single driver speaker with considerable limitations on dynamics and frequency extension. I am quick to point out there are things they do incredibly well such as coherency, but I need my big floor standing speakers (at least until I get old enough that I can’t move them around).
Looks like the Tannoy upgrade was in line cost-wise with my project, at about 25% of speaker MSRP. For the performance boost on a beloved design I consider that a pretty good deal. Whether the Dueland would be worth it; well, a listening comparison would be in order. I am elated that Legacy and Clarity Cable joined forces so the finished product is aesthetically identical to the standard speaker, as opposed to having external crossovers, etc.
To me the total package price of cables is at $25K for your setup, but considering a tri-wired truly full range speaker, the three sets of cables and the internally upgraded Whisper Clarity Edition is all told $34K, not radically more for what I would suggest is a radically different performance set. Remember, too, that it includes the new set of AMT drivers, which is a game changer, imo, on the high end versus the previous version.
I don’t think I’m sold on the idea that the complex pleasures are less value than the simple ones! 🙂
Blessings, and happy listening!
Douglas Schroeder
I love the Whisper speakers but I take issue with the claim you can hear the difference in speaker cables. Quite simply, it’s marketing bullshit from high-end audio manufacturers. Unless you’re doing 100′ cable runs I challenge anyone to a blind test. In fact, it’s already been done …..
http://gizmodo.com/363154/audiophile-deathmatch-monster-cables-vs-a-coat-hanger
What’s funny is you are citing one of the biggest BS comparison tests imagineable. Monster Cables that they are using aren’t high end cables. They might be high end for a Best Buy (Not Magnolias), but they aren’t high end cables. Nor are these little ABX tests. The problem with most ABX tests is that you have to have enough time with the cables in your own environment with familiar listening material (that’s not processed recordings) and you have to listen to these with consideration of volume levels. What happens in short term listening tests, humans automatically gravitate to what’s the loudest, but the differences in cables is a lot more subtle than that and it takes time getting used to listening to a wide variety of music to hear what, if any, differences there are. But from a scientific standpoint, cables act like a filter and depending on the cable design, materials, construction, etc. etc., the filter curve can change. But comparing a Monster Cable to a coat hanger and just categorically making a sweeping generalization that ALL cables sound equal is VERY naive and ignorant in the art of listening.
Could you please correct the frequencies in your review on page 5? I doubt that ANY tweeter is capable (or would even claim) frequency responses of “5kHz – 1,250kHz”. Just in case I’m not making my point, the high end there is 1.25 MHz!!! Even 125 kHz (125,000 Hz) would be a real stretch. It really made it difficult to understand exactly what performance the speakers actually have.