Legacy Focus User manual

1. Warranty
2. Unpacking/Speaker Placement
3. Designer’s Note
5. The Cabinetry/Our Commitment
6. Connections/Fine-tuning
7. Specifications
8. Hook-Up Cables
9. Amplifier
10. For The Tweakers
11. Biamplification

Thank you for selecting a Legacy Loudspeaker System. These
hand-crafted instruments will provide you with many years of
listening enjoyment. Please take a few moments to read this brief
manual to insure maximum benefit from your speaker system.
Limited Warranty
Legacy Audio, Inc. extends to the original owner coverage of
defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 90 days
from the date of purchase. To extend this warranty to 10 years,
please fill out the enclosed warranty card and return to Legacy
Audio.
This warranty does not include a) damage in shipment, b)
damage caused by accidental or intentional misuse or abuse, c)
units not registered with Legacy Audio, d) damage resulting from
unauthorized modifications or repairs. Liability is limited to the
repair or replacement, at our option, of any defective component
and shall not include property or consequential damages which
may result from the failure of this product.
Customer Record
Model No. ____________________________
Serial No. _____________________________
Date of Purchase ____ / ____ / ____
Owner _______________________________
Street Address _________________________
City ______________ State _____ Zip _____
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Unpacking
Your new speaker system has been very carefully packaged to
insure that it travels to you safely. Each speaker is protected by a
double-wall outer carton with heavy V-board corner protectors.
Molded foam end caps are used to protect the elegant cabinetry,
and a plastic liner is provided as waterproofing.
Please save this packing for future transportation. If cartons
become damaged or misplaced, new ones can be purchased from
Legacy Audio.
The first unpacking step is to fold back the flaps at the top of
the outer carton.Then carefully stand the loudspeaker on its head
and slip away the outer cardboard. Be careful not to push in on
the speaker components located on the front and rear of the
cabinet. Remove cornerboard, foam caps and outer plastic.
Speaker Placement
To allow more flexibility in seating arrangements, your Legacy
loudspeaker is designed for broad lateral coverage. Optimal
listener position is actually about 5 to 15 degrees off the axis
normal to the loudspeaker baffle.
Assuming a listener distance of about ten feet, begin by
placing the speakers approximately 7 feet apart and about 1 - 3
feet from the wall behind them. In most rooms this will afford a
speaker position at least 2 feet or more from the side walls. The
amount of recommended "toe-in" is a function of the listening
angle. As the overall listening angle increases from 40 degrees,
the amount of toe-in should increase.
Your Legacy speaker is optimized for a flat response in the far
field. Best results are obtained vertically with the listener's ear at
tweeter level with the loudspeakers gently toed in toward the
listener. Increasing the degree of toe-in is recommended when
placement next to sidewalls is required.
Placing the loudspeaker or the listener near a room boundary
will generally increase low frequency impact. If you are forced to
position one or both of your loudspeakers in a corner, be
prepared to reduce bass output via the control switches on the
rear terminal plate of each loudspeaker. You may also wish to
reduce low frequency output with your preamp's bass tone
control. If you do not have tone controls on your preamp, we
can provide you with an external custom passive attenuator
which can also be tuned for treating standing wave ("room
boom") problems.
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Designer’s Note from Bill Dudleston
FIELD OPTIMIZED CONVERGENT SOURCE
FOCUS utilizes controlled directivity to improve image
resolution.This special driver array minimizes coloration’s due to
floor and ceiling reflections.The speaker system offers more than
400 square inches of total piston area, more than double of our
closest competitor.
The FOCUS system represents the latest advancements in
controlling acoustic radiation patterns with conventional speaker
systems.Two 7” double layered Kevlar® Hexacone drivers are
strategically separated to provide a null off-axis vertically. Floor
and ceiling are reduced by an incredible 20 decibles through the
critical midband (500 Hz-4 kHz).This reduction of early
reflections allows fragile low level ambient information found in
recordings to be heard over the listening room’s sonic signature.
Images are clearly defined and localization is consistent with
frequency.
The Kevlar Hexacone drivers used in FOCUS are among the
most expensive and elaborate ever developed.The cone material
is more than 70 times stiffer than polypropylene and paper
cones, yet weighs 30% less.An enormous motor structure and a
vented pole piece assure unsurpassed dynamics and clarity.These
special midrange drivers are mounted into rigid PVC
subenclosures, which are filled with polyester fiberfill to absorb
the backware energy.
The end result is a speaker system with literally the finest
midrange qualities in the world, next to our Whisper that is!
When one of our competitors performed a distortion analysis on
this speaker, measurements were so close to the baseline that
they thought their equipment was malfunctioning!
The treble region is handled precisely by a specially treated
1.25” woven dome tweeter with a 48 ounce magnet structure.
This dome hands off to a 4” ribbon supertweeter outfitted with a
custom designed waveguide faceplate for controlled dispersion.
This ribbon provides an ultra-linear horizontal radiation pattern
for a broad listener sweet spot and effortless shimmering highs.
Gone is the irritating “tingy” treble associated with so many
underdamped metal domes.
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The bass frequency range is controlled by three long throw
12” subwoofers with carbon impregnated cones.A vented 6th
order alignment provides the deepest extension with far less
distortion than a conventional sealed box or ported systems.
FOCUS is endowed with low frequency dynamic capabilities
among the greatest ever found in and audiophile speaker.The
system’s linear bass output betters models such as the B&W 801
and KEF 105/3 by 9 decibals and more!
The crossover network has been optimized using the most
sophisticated software available.The highest quality film
capacitors, air core inductors, and ferrite bobbins are hand-tuned
and point point wired with fine solders.The
low frequency crossover is isolated from the
satellite section to prevent magnetic
interactions.
Outfitted with two pair of gold-plated
binding posts, the FOCUS system is biwirable
and biamp capable.All internal wiring is our
own Legacy Oxygen free copper speaker
cable.
4

The Cabinetry
Beneath the surface of FOCUS’s elegant exterior lies rigid
MDF construction. Interlocking joinery maximizes the strength of
the cabinet parts. Polyester fiberfill is selected for internal
damping.A sharp rap on the enclosure will leave you with little
more than bruised knuckles.
Each cabinet is impeccably finished on all exposed surfaces
with select veneers.The exquisite finish is hand-rubbed several
times to assure a patina at home with the most elegant decor.
Our Commitment
A great deal of forethought, love and satisfaction is instilled
into each piece of Legacy workmanship.We take pride in coming
to know many of our customers on a first name basis.
Your purchase of this product is backed by the renowned
“Legacy Satisfaction Guarantee”. We continue to stand behind it
with a solid ten year warranty, more than twice the industry
standard.
5

Connections
At the rear of each of your loudspeakers you will find a
terminal plate housing two rows of jumpered binding posts.The
upper row is the input to the “satellite” portion of the speaker.
The lower row is the input to the “subwoofer” portion of the
speaker.When left in place, the factory-installed jumper bars
allow the speaker to be driven with a single channel of
amplification. (if biamping, or biwiring, be sure to remove the
jumper bars. More on this later!).
Connect each channel of amplifier to a loudspeaker via the
five-way gold binding posts provided. Dual banana plugs or gold
plated spade lugs are recommended means of termination.
Be sure that you observe polarity when making the
connections.The positive (+) terminal of the amplifier should be
connected to the positive terminal of the loudspeaker.The
negative (-) terminal of the amplifier should be connected to the
negative terminal of the loudspeaker.
Fine-tuning
To facilitate proper set-up of your speakers in a variety of
room situations, we have included several heavy duty toggle
switches on the terminal plate, located on the back of the
loudspeaker. All switches in the “up” position represent the
“anechoic flat” position.
Switch 1: is a low frequency impedance contour when using
amplifiers with high current capability. It is recommended that
switch 3 be left in the up position which converts the
FOCUS from a traditional B4 alignment to a more
sophisticated sixth-order Butterworth alignment, thus
reducing distortion in the octave above system
resonance.
Switch 2: can be used in the “down” position to soften
midrange presence.This switch can be used to reduce
the forwardness of certain recordings.
Switch 3: can be used in the “down” position to reduce
edginess in the lower treble region due to room flutter
or bright program material.
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Specifications
System Type: 7 driver, 4 way.
Tweeter: 4” Ribbon.
Midrange: 1.25” soft textile dome.
Midwoofer: (2) 7” Kevlar®.
Subwoofer: (3) 12” Polypropelene.
Low Frequency Alignment: B6 Assisted.
Sensitivity: 98 dB @ 2.83 V/1m.
Frequency response: 16 Hz - 30 kHz +/- 2 dB.
Crossover frequency (Hz): 180, 2.2k, 12k.
Recommended Amplification: 10 - 400 watts/channel.
Impedance: 4 ohms.
Dimensions: 55” H x 15”W x 13” D
Weight: 175 lbs.
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Hook-up Cables
The ideal conductor would have negligible resistance,
inductance and capacitance. The table below shows how a few
actual speaker cables measure up.
Cable Ωs/ft pF/ft µH/ft
12 ga. 0.0033 24 0.21
14 ga. 0.0048 17 0.13
16 ga. 0.0079 16 0.18
18 ga. 0.0128 28 0.21
Capacitance is considered insignificant in each cable because
its effect is well out of the audio bandwidth; inductance can be
decreased (at the expense of increased capacitance) by keeping
the conductor pair closely spaced.
How long would a cable have to be before inductance effects
would impinge on the audio spectrum? Approximately 300 feet
of 12 gauge would be required to establish a corner frequency of
20 kHz with an 8 Ohm loudspeaker. As you see, inductance is
not a problem for most of us.
What about phase shift due to frequency dependent travel
times down the speaker cable? Measurements show that 100 Hz
waves will be delayed about 20 billionths of a second behind 10
kHz waves when traveling to the end of a 10 foot speaker cable.
Since the cilia of the ear requires 25,000 times longer than this
just to transmit phase information, phase shifting is obviously not
the primary concern when considering speaker cables.
What about resistance? Finally we are getting somewhere.
Resistance is the controlling factor of the amplifier/loudspeaker
interface.
Excessive resistance can cause major shifts of speaker
crossover frequencies. The lower the impedance of the
loudspeaker, the greater the effects of series resistance. A run of
20 feet of 18 gauge can cause up to 10% deviations of crossover
center frequencies. That same 20 feet can undamp your damping
factor and reduce your systems’ output by one-half decibel.
In summary, there are no perfect cables. The best way to
approximate the ideal would be to keep loudspeaker leads as
short as is practical.
8

The Amplifier
Ideally the loudspeaker would be among the first
components selected when assembling a playback system. This
would allow the user to choose an amplifier capable of delivering
adequate amounts of current into the frequency dependent load
presented by the loudspeaker. However, when upgrading a
system, audiophiles may find themselves matching their new
loudspeakers to their existing amplification. For this reason,
extensive measures have been taken to ensure that each Legacy
speaker system represents a smooth, non-reactive load to virtually
any amplifier.
Often there is much confusion regarding amplification and
loudness levels. It should be understood that the role of the
amplifier goes beyond that of driving loudspeakers to a given
sound pressure level. The amplifier should be able to CONTROL
the loudspeakers across the entire music spectrum. This means
that parameters such as damping factor (values greater than 60
are acceptable) and dynamic headroom should not be overlooked
when comparing amplifiers.
How much power will your new speakers need? That
ultimately depends on your listening environment and musical
tastes. As little as five watts per channel should drive them to a
level satisfactory for background music. A typical 45 watt per
channel receiver may fill a room with the compressed mid-band
energy of “heavy metal,” but seem to lack weight or control with
classical recordings. Some audiophiles feel that 200 watts per
channel is the bare minimum to avoid audible clipping distortion
when reproducing music at “live” playback levels. Your Legacy
speakers are designed to take advantage of “high-powered”
amplifiers, so don’t be afraid to put them through their paces.
How much is too much power? Rarely is a drive unit
damaged by large doses of music power. More often than not the
villain is amplifier clipping distortion. Even through decades of
refinement, loudspeakers are still notoriously inefficient
transducers, requiring huge amounts of power to recreate the
impact of the live performance. Typically less that 1% of
electrical power is converted into acoustic output. (For example,
an omni-directional transducer with an anechoic sensitivity of 90
dB @ 1w/1m has a full space efficiency of only 0.63%) When an
amplifier is unable to fulfill your loudspeakers demands, a
damaging harmonic spike may be leaked to the high frequency
drivers.
Another important point regarding loudness is that the dB
scale is a logarithmic one. This means that a 150 Watt amplifier
will potentially sound only twice as loud as a 15 Watt amplifier.
If all of this discussion of power and loudness seems a bit
abstract, consider the the example to the left:
The average acoustical power
developed by a person speaking in
a conversational tone corresponds
to a mere 0.00001 Watts. The
power that would be developed by
the entire population of the city of
New York speaking at once would
barely illuminate a single 100
Watt light bulb.

For the Tweakers
Your Legacy loudspeaker is a true reference monitor designed to
reproduce all program material with an absolute minimum of
coloration. Occasionally we encounter a customer who simply has a
characteristic sound that he or she desires to achieve. Rather than
take on the close-minded position that this customer is wrong an
simply has one oar in the water, we would prefer to offer our
assistance.
We have found that the human ear is incredibly sensitive in the
range of 3 kHz. In fact, at some listening levels the ear is as much as
15 dB more sensitive than at neighboring frequencies.Therefore, a
peaky studio microphone may occasionally raise the hair on one’s
neck. (One needs only to listen to the Stereophile microphone test
CD to find out just how bad some microphones really are).
It seems that the presence band of 3 kHz to 8 kHz effectively
dictates the degree of forwardness, depth, detail, brightness, or
sweetness of a recording. Because of the sensitivity of this range, we
allow you one extra tweak.
If you wish to attenuate the energy in this range, simply contact
Legacy Audio and we will exchange or modify your dome drivers
with a resistor network that allows several soft steps of attenuation.
Another situation frequently encountered is the “one speaker in
the corner, the other speaker open to the dining room” syndrome.
Don’t panic, we build high quality passive resonance trap circuits that
will take the drone out of corner placements.These circuits may be
placed in series with the woofer section of your speaker and will not
effect your midrange of treble frequencies.
Even greater flexibility can be achieved with the Focus’ by
implementing the Steradian Environmental Processor (STEP One)
into your system..
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Biamplification
Your Legacy speakers offer the options of conventional wiring,
biwiring, passive biamplification or active biamplification. The
following is a summary of these options.
CONVENTIONAL WIRING
This format is the simplest way to connect your loudspeakers to
your amplifier. A single twin-conductor cable is used to link the
loudspeaker to a single channel of amplification. Jumper wires must
be left in place on the loudspeaker.
BIWIRING
Biwiring allows one to minimize the cable losses between the
amplifier and the loudspeaker. This is accomplished with a single
stereo amplifier by running separate sets of cables to the satellite
section and the subwoofer section from the same channel of
amplification.
This technique allows one to “play” with wire parameters a bit
(such as heavy gauge wire on the sub sections and light gauge solid
core on the satellites).
When biwiring, the use of gold spade lugs or dual banana plugs
can make the task much easier and safer than bare wire connections.
Again, the major reasons for biwiring over conventional wiring are
greater power transfer (improved efficiency) and tighter control over
the drivers (better damping).
PASSIVE BIAMPING
This option can yield even better results than biwiring due to
broader distribution of power requirements.
Passive biamplification allows low frequency current demands to
be routed to a separate channel of amplification, thus reducing strain
on the satellite amplifier and preventing subwoofer back-EMF from
modulating with the upper frequencies. There are two types of
passive biamplification;Vertical biamping (which requires two
identical stereo amplifiers or four monoblocs) and Horizontal
biamping (which does not require identical amplifiers).
1. Vertical Biamping
Vertical biamplification requires the dedication of a single stereo
amplifier for the left speaker, and another stereo amplifier for the
right speaker. This configuration improves channel separation and
can improve imaging slightly. If your preamp does not have two sets
of left/right outputs, you will need a pair of Y-adapters or a signal
splitter, such as a dual amp balancer, which will also allow adjustment
of subwoofer/satellite input levels.
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2. Horizontal Biamping
Any two stereo amplifiers may be utilized in horizontal
biamplification. Many audiophiles prefer the "sweetness" of tubes on
the satellite portion of the loudspeaker while favoring the "control
and weight" of solid state amplifiers on the subwoofer section.
The biggest drawback of such a marriage of amplification is that
the two amplifiers may have different input sensitivities or output
polarities. Differences in the input sensitivities may be overcome by
using a dual amp balancer. This unit allows independent balancing of
the left subwoofer/satellite ratio and right subwoofer/satellite ratio.
It's also a good idea to check the owner's manuals to establish if
the amplifiers are inverting or non-inverting. If the two amplifiers are
of opposite polarity, then you should reverse the polarity at the inputs
of either the subwoofer or satellite binding posts.
NOTE: The above only applies to loudspeakers that incorporate the
subwoofer and satellite section in a single enclosure. It does not
apply towards the separate powered subwoofer/satellite configuration.
You must always observe the polarity when connecting the speaker
wire to a powered subwoofer.
ACTIVE BIAMPING
This option requires the utilization of an electronic (powered)
external crossover. Active biamplification is the most appealing means
of interfacing a subwoofer/satellite system due to the control
possibilities offered, but can also be the most costly.
An active crossover is inserted between the preamplifier outputs
and the inputs of two stereo amplifiers. Vertical or horizontal
biamping considerations are also applicable here.
A well designed active crossover will offer the user independent
high pass / low pass turnover frequencies for optimally blending the
satellites with the subwoofer sections of the speaker system. Other
features usually found are separate level controls for the high pass or
low pass sections and a choice of inverted or non-inverted low
frequency outputs (needed when strapping an amplifier to mono).
Also helpful is bass equalization and subsonic filtering.
When cascading active filters with the existing passive filters
within the speaker system, be sure to allow for adequate frequency
overlap. For instance, if the passive crossover is set at 500 Hz, select a
low pass corner frequency of 600 Hz and a high pass corner
frequency of 450 Hz to prevent a suck-out in the response at 500 Hz.
The controlled distribution of power afforded by the active
crossover results in less amplifier strain (better clarity), greater
dynamics, and lower intermodulation distortion. However, a basic
understanding of crossover slopes and crossover frequencies within
your loudspeaker will be needed to implement the active crossover
successfully.
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