In a previous post, I commented that the only weak point to the FOCUS might be imaging. Since then, I've added a better pre-amp to my system and rearranged my listening room a little. My listening room is really difficult to set up properly for speaker placement. Anyway, I made some compromises on furniture placement and improved the speaker placement. I'm happy to report that I now have pretty decent imaging. As I suspected, the problem was mostly due to my room.
Reading some of the reviews that give the FOCUS only one star, I can only conclude that most of these reviewers must be selling competing speakers and are trying to give Legacy a bad name to boost their own sales. Even if someone didn't care for the sound of the Legacy, it would be impossible to give it one star. That is simply a dishonest rating. And, the guy who talked about Legacy losing it's dealer network was simply out-and-out lying, as they had no dealer network at that time (they now have a network of auditioning sites).

I don't know what speakers Dan heard, but they don't sound like the excellent Focus speakers I've heard. I have not experienced as good low bass response or definition from any speakers anywhere near their price. As for their top end, I did not find it overly bright at all. That beautiful ribbon super tweeter puts out some very refined sounding highs, and the midrange is heaven. If I were looking for speakers in the price range of the Legacy Focus, I would look no further.

Tremendous midrange, overall great sound, highs to lows. very fast trebble, not nearly as bright sounding as i thought they would be. Extremely transparent. I strongly suggest you listen to these!

could be because of small room, tube gear, and bad placement, but i wasn't getting as much lower and bass as i thought that there would be. Punch, quality, speed, everything about good bass was there, there just wasn't enough of it. At least for my taste. I didn't buy these, just listened to them many many times. I own paradigm monitor 3's. in a 12x15' room. they put out more bass at medium listening levels than these speakers do! (not more quality of bass, but more overall

Possibly the "top ten" of best speakers under the 7k mark!

Similar Products Used:

klipsch cornwalls, paradigm (own) dunlavy SC 4A, dynaudio evidence, jm lab utopia, just about everything,

These speakers are very open (not elctrostats, but very good) The bass can be boomy if you don't know what you are doing, which most people don't know acoustics. Obviously some poeple here have a hidden agenda. 1 star! please! Please reserve the 1 star for Bose. My guess is that the 1 stars are omin from audio dealers that are threatened by a direct mail or internet company. They are frightened by the companies that 1. have a 30 day in home audition policy and 2. have a great following, and 3. that have audiotion sites through out the US taht sell the product with no mark-up (i.e. the same as the factory)
For the people that ask why they are not reviewed in Stereophile (as if that makes a brand legit, not) Sterophile has a policy to only review products that are sold in at least 6 retail outlets (real retail, not "audition" sites) They addressed this in an editorial once when asked why they broke their policy with the Eaglston's (the only exception I know of to date)

I am an owner of the Legacy Focus now for 4 years, so you can tell from this that I indeed to like them. In fact, I think that there are very few speakers that really compare, at any price. This is a pretty heavy statement, but to most (not to those already dead against them) I can back this up.
I have been an audiophile for over 30 years, followed the industry and equipment
throughout this time, always trying to pick equipment very good for the buck that will last a long time, both in product durability and in being able to keep up with the always changing technology. Prior to the Focuses I owned the Dahlquist DQ-10's for 20 years because they were hard to beat for a very long time (although not on the very low end). At any rate, I attend the Stereophile shows every year they are on the West coast, and listen to many, many speakers on all kinds of equipment in all kinds of setting with most kinds of music (almost no Rock). In fact, I bring about 20 of my own hand pick CD's that are esepcially good for demos. Going to these shows really gives you a feel for what is good, what goes well together, what plays what kind of music best, and so on.

After reviewing many of the Focus reviews here, I do not believe even one person mentioned going to this type of audio shows, especially not on a regular basis (although I did not go through ALL the reviews). At any rate, here are my findings, along with my son's who is 27 years younger than I and has slightly
different music taste (sorry to say - he does like Rock):
1) Almost NO speakers under $14K sound better, including the Legacy Whispers.
2) Speakers that sound better are: Infinity IRS Sigma ($14K), the mbl 101C ($29K), the Genesis 1 (~$30K-35K) and 200, Arthemis with bass module (~20K),
and some others. Notice the trend here with the prices.

Nor do I think a room can affect one's judgement of a speaker from a rating of 5 down to 1, so other things must be causing the few reviewers to down
play the Focus so much. Some of the reviewers sounded like the bass they were
looking for is what you hear at a rock concert, or in a car that is bouncing down the road alerting the neighborhood. These sources do not produce clear, distortion free bass, and if you get use to that, perhaps the Focus sounds weak at the low end to these people. There could be other percular type reason as well. What these people are saying is that the Focus didn't sound good to them, not that it isn't a near perfect, accurate sounding speaker system, for unless
you really go out of your way to hear may (hundreds) of speakers then how will you know what is natural or accurate or absolutely amazing? Of course, going to real music concerts (no amplification, no speakers) will also give you a very good sound reference, which is hard to come by these days.

In conclusion, in my opinion it is hard to say anything bad or poor about the Focus. If you do come across a used pair (not damaged) which a few people report are so common, get them. Yes, shipping is high, from $100-$150 (Roadway Express-800-762-3929) and you will probably need a friend to set them up since they are so heavy. I just tried getting another pair for my rears (moving from Dolby Pro to Dolby Digital) from an ad in the latest Stereophile magazine I just got, but they were gone already!) Use good equipment to drive them, but it does not need to be essoteric and shouldn't be low end equipment either (duh, who would be using low end stuff with a list price speaker of over $5K?). I would recommend using separates instead of receivers to make them really sing.

Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss comparisons in more detail, or if you don't think your getting quite the sound you think you should be getting out of them.

Vincent

Sorry about reposting, but I realized I mistyped my email address. I know I shouldn't repost, but wanted to be sure what I gave was accurate. Thanks,Angelo B

I just found your site and am enjoying reading about different speaker brands. I have a pair of Legacy Focus speakers, which I've owned for about 5 years. I dearly love them. They are powered by a Legacy 2 channel amp and a Musical Designs tube preamp.
It looks to me that a few people are going to a lot of trouble to brand bash here. Such malicious tones are not necessary. I noticed one owned 7 amps and still owns the Focus.

A few misstatements (for sure) from the complaining party and he states, "Legacy will not pay for shipping if you are not satisfied." I would like to quote from a current Legacy catalog which arrived recently. "We are so confident you will love our products that we will have them picked up at your door if you are not completely satisfied."

That person also complains that the bass is inadequate in Focus. Yeah right! B&W just released their new $8,000 Nautilus model whose total harmonic distortion exceeded 60%. Focus is under 3%, to me that is value. I'll take the attack of the six 12" woofers in Focus over a sub anytime. By the way, I love my tube preamp with my solid state on Focus.

I'll make you a bet. Contact Legacy (800-AUDIO-HI) with your problem, and they'll offer to fix it at no charge.

This person is actually complaining that Legacy gave him too much for his trade-in; that's a problem? I guess they just are being to nice to people.

Chris is right!! I just open my Focus and shockly found telephone wire betreen crossover and the three little switches on the back of the speaker. This telephone wire will carry your BASS signal also. No wonder the bass sucks even the have three woofers. By the way, the woofer drivers have made in China print on them. The crossover look so differnt from the picture in their cadlog, and the internal wires are very cheap. The vent ports have paper tubes behind them, the same paper tubus you can get from the centerof your paper tower roll. Several stripped screw holes and one internal bracing is cracked. I owned these speakers for about one year and have problem to make them sounds good. They sounds quite fussy when play loud, make you want to turn down the volume. I am selling mine but they cost too much to ship if you can find a shipper wants to ship them. No wonder their return rates are low because Legacy WILL NOT pay for the shipping if you are not satisfied. Just open the screws on the speaker terminal plate and you will know what I and Chris are talking about.

I have had the pleasure of hearing the Focus speakers. I question neither the quality of the sound nor of the speaker' physical construction. Please see the discussion section of this website where I challenge the false statments made by the Focus' critics (i.e. telephone wire used, cheap drivers). My message in the discussion section was posted February 10, 1999- if this will help you find it.

Excellent bass; Crystal clear highs; Sublime Midrange. Fit and Finish are also top notch.

Can't think of any at the moment...

While I am not trying to attack Al, I fear that he has never heard the Focus. His description of their sound below, shows he is somehow biased against Legacy speakers. As for the cabinet quality of Legacy's entire line of speakers -- "stunningly beautiful" sums it up best for me. I have seen someone use the term "coffins" on the TechTalk page quite frequently, while bashing Legacy speakers... I wonder if Al is this same person? It really is too bad he has to try and ruin the Legacy name on the review page as well...

As for my take on the sound of the Focus... The best word I can think of is "natural." They can't completely reproduce the "you are there" experience, but they come darn close IMO. At their price range, it would be *very* dificult to best their sound.