But wait, there’s more!
There’s always one last sweetener to the offer which cannot be refused. For me the hook came when I began looking into passive preamplifiers seriously. All the years I have been in this hobby I have been running active preamps, and I realize now that was shortsighted. I should have been exploring active as well as passive preamps. The realization came upon me suddenly when I dropped the tactical nuke-like Music First Baby Reference Preamplifier (passive) into the rig with the Clarity Whisper. I had tapped into a gold mine of potential, unearthed veins of precious sound, which the Clarity Whisper laid out before me like a showing of artifacts brought up from an ore laden mine!
If I would have concluded my assessment of the Clarity Whisper without hearing the illumination this speaker is capable of via a passive preamp, I would have done injustice to it. Now, without hesitation I proclaim the owner of a Clarity Edition Whisper design to have sound quality commensurate with speakers costing from seventy five to one hundred thousand dollars! That’s right, this is a premier speaker system, one which I aver would win awards at audio shows, shouldering past some big names in the process.
I have for the past eight years taken mental note of the top-gun systems at shows, and returned to my room conducting an assessment of where my rig stacks up in comparison. The Clarity Edition of my Whisper, led by the Music First Audio Baby Reference Preamplifier (on review) and the Wells Audio Innamorata amplifiers, for the first time as I returned from shows has caused me to conclude I am there, on the ridge of the highest performance regardless of system cost. Note that I have said, “…on the ridge of the highest performance,” as I do not wish to make a foolish declaration of one speaker or system being “the best,” and in so doing invalidate my credibility. When one discusses top-end speakers and systems, many superlatives are bandied about. There are several speakers I might proclaim the best, but they still retain idiosyncrasies which can be judged harshly in certain systems and rooms. Simply put, there are a few incredible speakers on the market – and the Whisper Clarity Edition is one of them.
The internal barriers of the Whisper have been removed making it a fully realized design, unlike a great number of speakers on the market, even some far pricier ones. Legacy Audio has produced a new statement speaker, one which in stock form outclassed even speakers at twice its price point, but now is complete, a fully realized statement speaker which real world audiophiles can still afford. If you like the original Whisper, you will adore the Clarity Edition Whisper!
Associated Components:
- Source: Simaudio Moon Evolution 750D DAC/Player; Cambridge Audio 840C; Sonos Digital Music System; Oppo DV-970HD
- NAS: Buffalo Linkstation 500G
- DAC: Eastern Electric Minimax DAC Plus with Burson and Dexa NewClassD Discrete Opamp Upgrade
- Preamp: VAC Renaissance Signature Preamplifier MkII; Cambridge Audio 840E
- Amps: VAC Phi 200; Pass Labs X600.5 Monos; Jones Audio PA-M300-1-2 Monoblocks
- Integrated: Pathos Classic One MkIII stereo tube hybrid (two units bridged to mono); Peachtree Audio Nova
- Speakers: Kings Audio Kingsound King III; Legacy Audio Clarity Edition; Kings Audio King Tower omnidirectional; Daedalus Audio Ulysses used in Landscape orientation; Eminent Technology LFT-8B
- Subwoofers: Legacy Audio XTREME HD (2)
- IC’s: Clarity Cable Organic RCA/XLR; Tara Labs RSC Air1 series 2; Wireworld Equinox; Wireworld Silver Eclipse; Wireworld Platinum Eclipse; Snake River Audio Signature Series Interconnects
- Speaker Cables: Clarity Cable Organic Speaker; Tara Labs RSC Air1; Wireworld Equinox 5; Wireworld Silver Eclipse; Snake River Audio Signature Series Speaker Cables
- Digital Cables: Clarity Cable Organic Digital; Tara Labs RSC Air 75; Wire World Startlight 6; Wireworld Gold Starlight 5, Wireworld Gold Starlight 6; Snake River Audio Boomslang
- Power Cables: Clarity Cable Vortex; MIT Oracle ZIII; Tara Labs RSC Air; Xindak PF-Gold; Wireworld Stratus 5, Electra 5 and Silver Electra; Snake River Audio Signature Series
- Power Conditioning: Wireworld Matrix Power Cord Extender; Tara Labs ISM Power Screen; Tice Audio Solo
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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.