i’m just embarking on owner (pre own ) Legacy Classic II speakers . had auditioned the blown away bynit’s sound , clearity ( not bright and “noisy” ) and not to mention it’s rich sound , and Bass .... to die . i own JBL Studio monitor 4410 , and comparing , it’s 2 different animal . I have a small issue . it’s ribbon tweeter sounds soft and slightly faded , just wondering if it’s blown ? and requires replacement ? womdering what’s it’s replacmemt cost ? waiting for LegacyAudio reply .

none at this time . it’s “new “ for me

I came accross the Legacy Classic towers on the cheap. Price pushed me to overlook that the voice coil and ribbon tweeters were burnt out. That's how good these speakers are. The mid range alone is phenomenal.

Customer service at Legacy Audio is top notch. They looked into their aging inventory and sold me replacement ribbon tweeters, voice coils and jumpers. Additionally their tech walked me through how to remove the existing components without damaging anything unnecessarily and informed me that the replacement of these components would make my speakers good for another 20 years.

My equipment:
Denon AVR4802 as a preamp
Denon POA 8200 THX Ultra amplifiers. Rated at 125wpc; note, more than enough power
RBH TS-12AP aluminum driver subwoofer at 200watts.

I have my audio settings where I'm crossing over at 80Hz. The Denon AVR 4802 has this as a THX setting. I mean why not? THX is what it is for a reason.

I'm not one for excessive verbiage when it comes to listening to speakers. The best I can say for these speakers is that they will handle anything you throw at them with clarity and detail. They are not fatiguing and are a true listening joy. Bjork, Pagannini, Bach, Pink Floyd, Groove Armada, Massive Attack, Led Zeppelin etc. Everything on these speakers sounds exactly as the sound engineer on the recording intended it to. When connected for high resolution audio, it's absolutely jaw dropping how clear everything sounds.

Sometimes the addition of a subwoofer feels like overkill. However the ribbon tweeters shine through all of the bass and the listening space is immersed in sound. I continously marvel at how clear the ribbon tweeter is. Like one other reviewer said, I would not upgrade to anything else. After having these I feel like they are a perfect speaker for home audio.

I purchased the classics in 1995. they still are a high quality bang for the buck speaker. at the present time the problem I am having is the ultra low bass. in their present location I can
only position them about 12 to 15in from the back wall. with the rear 10in woofer there is a
little too much too much reflection. I called legacy and they where very helpful. I have put
foam in the ports.and bi-wired them. they may need to be 24in from the back wall.
they still have the great sound they had when they were new. I have a couple more options
to try any suggestions. I currently using a Yamaha 2010 with an emotive 200w amp to push
the classics. as you can tell the new classics have the woofers on the front. as for the used
classics it will depend on the year. a hifi store in my area put mine at about $900.00.

I have an opportunity to pick up a pair of Legacy Classic for 1500.00 they look in great condition, am going to inquiry to hear them perform before purchase, luckily they are local and can travel to them to hear. Is there anything I should look for, ask or be aware of?

Ken

August 6, 2007 Feels like a long time ago. I suppose it was. It has been 6 years since I wrote my first review of the First generation, Legacy 1, Reel to Reel speakers made in Springfield Illinois.

How do they perform? Perfect. They do exactly what I want them to do. For the past 6 years I used a Sunfire preamp and bi-amped the speakers with an old Yamaha M65 for the bottom end and a St202+ on the top.

Countless friends and family have listened to them. Solicitations to purchase a dozen times by a dozen different people. Zero Chance.

These speakers have held up to everything I have thrown at them. They will play more than loud enough for neighbors across the street, to take notice and stop in for a spell.

The cabinets are rock solid.
In a word. Marvelous.

I was asked a few times in the last 6 years, what would you want to upgrade too, from these? Simply? I don't. I have not heard a single model from the legacy line other than these. Im sure the Focus sound great. Im sure with the right Electronics, the Whisper sounds extraordinary. Maybe its senility setting it. Maybe I have an attachment disorder.

I have sold off almost every other set of speakers I own, but these... These I will hold onto until my last breath. They are that good. They are pillars of joy, statues of greatness, they are the epitome of what artist strive for, true accurate reproduction of their craft.

Funny story. Owner of a local audiophile store and I were talking. He is a long time friend and I was inshop listening to some Alon 5's. Auditioned with a VTL tube setup they were pleasant to the ear.

I offered to compare the L1's in my home, and it was near closing time so he followed. Hell Freezes over tour of the Eagles, Hotel California.
Him and his Wife sat in amazement, through the acoustic section. It was being played at a volume congruent to failure for lesser speakers.

Through the acoustic begining, I watched their grins widen.. Then a coy look from the shop owner. Knowing full well there was a looming bass beat to commence.. That will be where the L1's show their weakness, or perhaps the weakness in my upstream components.

To his amazement, the low notes hit solid and true pounding all of us in the chest. The bass could be felt through the floor, through our bones. The L1's didnt flinch, didnt hesitate. Even at this more than considerable volume they handled the musical demands effortlessly, no strain what so ever.

After the song had played its course he stated.
"Wow, I really figured they would at least frog out.. Those are quite impressive".

I tend to agree.
If you ever see a pair of these for sale, scoop them up. You will hard pressed to find sound this good for 3x's the price.

Cheers! Happy listening. If we are all here in another 6 years Ill write a 12 year review.

I've had the 4 switch 90's model for many years now. It's absolutely wonderful!

I read some people had problems with rear tweeter being harsh.. I did too until i switched to much better componenets and cables which showed me that the fault was not with the speakers. The rear tweeter is on and it sings beautifully.

I've thrown all genres of music at it and it did much better on them than a $3k speaker is supposed to. Giant killer!

I recently auditioned a pair of Gallo Reference 3.1s which are also supposed to be a great value, but it wasn't even close to the quality of the sound of the classics - and All of his components were 4x the price of mine. I also don't like the sound of the new legacies nearly as much.

This is the reason why this model is so hard to find. If you see one snag it asap - but don't come knocking on my door for mine - you won't like my answer :)

I’ve owned a pair of Classics for nearly three years now and have immensely enjoyed the sound they produce. What is particularly impressive about these loudspeakers is their seamless driver integration, which produces a very balanced and liquid sound. No frequency range draws undue attention to itself. The midrange is especially open and natural sounding. The Classics are detailed and revealing without sounding clinical. They don’t force the music on you, the way more forward and aggressive sounding systems do. Rather, recordings are presented on a realistically proportioned soundstage well behind the cabinets’ front baffles. Imaging is solid but not overdone or artificial. No 3D tricks. If the recording lacks depth and space, these speakers won’t add any. With recordings that do possess these characteristics (a good example being The Bill Evans Trio’s Waltz for Debbie LP), the rear-firing titanium dome tweeters are effective at adding greater depth and sparkle to the higher frequencies. Through the classics, John Bonham’s drum solo on “Moby Dick” has plenty of natural room reverberation and realistic cymbal decay. The quality of the bass is exceptional. Even with recordings with excessive low frequency content, such as dub reggae tracks, the Classics, except under extreme circumstances where there is simply too much low frequency content to begin with, maintain control and definition-and this is with both speakers positioned only about a foot-and-a-half from the rear wall and with lower wattage (40 WPC) tube gear powering them. They are obviously dynamic speakers and great for rock music, reggae, funk, etc. They aren’t, however, “one trick pony” party speakers that can only play loud but do little, if anything, else. Small scale recordings of chamber music and jazz combos come across with plenty of subtle detail and texture, even at lower volume levels. I haven’t compared these speakers to many others, but I’m confident in knowing that they present music the way I want to hear it, which is naturally and cohesively.

Cabinets look like they were made by the amish. Real oak, perfect fit, great seams. The grills fit firm, and flush. The built in stands kant the speakers back, and these perfomred well in several different configurations, as far as room arrangement. They are big, heavy and sound like a million bucks.

My grills came brown in color. Very cool in 1980, not so cool today. With the lights dim, you cant tell.. I will leave them in their orignal color, but I may measure and construct a cosmetic pair just so I dont have to look at the brown... Brown... How could that of ever been considered a correct color to put on a grill?

First impression.. Wow. Is it premature to write this? I dont think so. I bought these, and though the "classic" is newer, this is a prestine pair of the original Legacy 1's. No rear firing drivers. Not a blemish on the Blonde Oaken cabinets. I spent a couple hours going through them, I replaced the rotted surround on the 10inch forward firing drivers, on both sides... Once the glue dried, I started in on some semi-soft listening. I tossed the worst possible combo at these speakers, the abosolute worst wire I could find, some very cheap unclaimied freight 18ga copper wire, a decent surround sound processor (not a dedicated stereo piece) then again its a sunfire theater grand.. Hooked up a very old Yamaha M65 power amp set to 4ohms, and ran a denon 5 disk cd changer.. First off, Kravitz's 5 album... wow. Great dynamic bass and the chorus of highs were tangible. I have them 2 feet from the sidewalls, 6 feet or so in between each, backed up to the rear wall... The imagery was emazing, even my tone deaf wife could hear the difference between these and the other dozen pairs of speakers I have on hand.... So a big mess of electronics, wth the worst wire one can buy... The sounds was emazing. Low lows, tight and controlled. The midrange was glorious. The highs came on, and went up into the stratosphere, without being harsh. I tried them with the well constructed grills in place and off to the side. Finally I have found a pair of speakers that do it all. I can easily justify selling my daqhquist dq7c's, my polk ls70's, my klipsch klf's, the specturm audios.... This pair of Legacy 1's do it all, in my opinon. Tomorrow Im going to biwire them with some good wire wire world speaker cables, bring out my Sansui 2101, perhaps my Denon pma 1315r, and the b&k seperates. Im going to thow all my electronics at it and, the run them to their potential. Ill comment later, but I can tell you this, running maybe 50 watts tonight was mind blowing.. Listen to the Dances with Wolves soundtrack, track one with the lights off... Prickled the hairs on my arms to full errect. They are beautiful, deep and image like no other.

Customer Service

everything I have read states that Legacy Audio is customer focused. The speakers I have here are probably 20 years old, I have no concerns on getting parts, or finding literature or guidance. Why? Because the man who designed and hand built these speakers, is the same man that owns and runs Legacy audio today... Im in peoria, its a 2 hour drive to have a face to face with the president of Legacy audio. I have no doubts he would meet with me in a new york minute, if the need was to arrise. Try getting that with Mark Levinston, or bose. Good luck.

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Ive ran all sorts of speakers, and electronics. There are a lot of speakers I like, for different reasons. These Legacy 1's, I love for all the other speakers strengths. I havent found a single area where these are lacking! They walk the dogg on my dahlquist dq7's in the midrange and low end extension. The ls70's sitting in the same room, do not have the bass that the legacy1's have. My spectrum audio coaxial 8's soundstage doesnt come close to these new boheemoths. My Klf 20 Klipsches are probably louder. This hasnt been confirmed, because I havnt pushed these yet, but Id bet the Klipsches are louder... Louder like broken ice sickles stabbing your ears out loud, shrill... Im super impressed with these.

Not able to judge.

Flat and dry sounding. Tiny sweet-spot. Down-firing woofer could be easily damaged. Flimsy grills.

I must be missing something or I got an lemon. It turned out there are 2 iterations of Legacy Classic, and I got the original one (the sub is down-firing and there is no Kelvar in the original version). Sound is average at best - typical Infinity junk speakers would sound as good. More power hungry than I expect too. For something this heavy with 6 drivers in each unit, I'd expect more. P.S. I know it's not an upstream issue as my Wilson Watt Puppy simply rocks the house.

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Wilson Watt Puppy 5; B&W 801/805/605; Magneplan 3.5R; Tyler Acoustics Ref Monitor; Silverline Sonata; Newform Research R645 .... to many to list

Low, deep, and clear bass. Crisp, well defined mids and treble.

NONE! As of yet

First my system: Krell KSA-150 Krell KRC-2 Krell KAV-300CD AudioQuest Calerda Biwire AudioQuest Python XLR Interconnects Right out of the box these Classics are fantastic. Mids and Trebles are very pronounced and sound incredible. Bass is tight, deep, and clear. Channel seperation and soundstage is top notch being both wide and deep. Biuld quality is exceptional. If your considering a pair of these look no further. You wont e disappointed. Some complain the price is to high but the old addage is true. "You get what you pay for".

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Infinity Kappa 7.1 Series II (no real comparison)