YEA I AGREE WITH LARRY. HOW THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO COMPAIR A JBL TO A LEGACY.

YOU MUST NOT KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOUR TALKING ABOUT MAN!!!

TAKE IT FROM SOMONE WHO HAS HERD THESE SPEAKERS (THERE AWSOME).

I HOPE SOMEDAY YOU WILL LEARN ABOUT THIS STUFF.

I drove down to Springfield, IL to listen to the Legacy Focus. For $5,000, the Focus sounded a little too boxed in. So, while I was down there, I figured I'd give the top of the line $12,000 Whisper a try.
First off, these are HUGE speakers. Real MONSTERS. They have 4 15" bass drivers, 4 midrange, 2 upper mids and a ribbon tweeter. They were being driven by Legacy's own mono blocks, and running Legacy's EAD designed pre-amp.

The sound was VERY spacious... where the Focus sounded like the sound was coming out of the speaker boxes, the Whisper truly did dissapear. This speaker sounded JUST like a pair of Martain Logan CLS II's.... for substantionally less (They go for more than $20,000...) I listened to several rock, jazz and classical cuts... and each had excellent depth. In fact, these speakers had such FOCUS and lack of difractions that they truly put the stereo image BEHIND the wall in front of me. I am guessing this clarity was due to the midrange and
tweeter arangement: the quad midranges are designed to interfear beyone their
directional pattern, canceling out unwanted early difractions off of the walls, ceiling and floor. And it worked wonderfully!

But the same idea did not work as well with the woofers. These speakers seemed weak when it came to absolute bass. in fact, I heard better bass out of a Audio Physic Virgio -- which has only 2 8" bass drivers in an unusual arangement. And what music did I listen to to figure this out? Massive Attack's Angel of their latest album Mezzanine. This song has SO much bass... layer after rythmic layer.

Because they fell a bit short on the bass, I'm gonna give them a 4 star rating... sorry.

Sound quality, realism, imaging, delicacy, wide sweetspot, dynamic range, frequency reponse

None

The Whispers are fantastic speakers, with a very realistic sound reproduction. Despite a multiple driver array, they sound seamlessly integrated. Deep, tight, authoritative bass, rich, smooth, beautiful, luxurious midrange, detailed, crisp, accurate highs. Extremely broad dynamic range. Easy to tailor the bass responce to the actual room in which they are used owing to the adjustability of the Whisper Bass processor. I have listened to and compared these speakers in the same set-up with Legacy Focus, System Audio 950s, Genesis 300s, ESP Harps and Concert Grands, and Audiostatic DCI-4 full range elctrostatics. The Whispers gave the most transparent, detailed, and satisfying sound with an unsurpassed realism, and the widest sweetspot I have ever experienced, making even off-axis listening a joy. Their imaging and sounstaging are equally superb. Whether for pristine stereo listening, or for Home theater excitement, my highest recommendation.

Similar Products Used:

Legacy Focus, Genesis 300, Others