Legacy Harmony Center User manual

Owners Manual For The
Harmony Center
Loudspeaker System

2
Registration
Owners Record 3
The Cabinetry Our Commitment 4
Warranty 5
Setup
Unpacking Your Speakers 6
Speaker Installation 7-12
Hooking Up Cables 13-15
Amplification 16-18
Technology
Designer’s Notes 19
Specifications 20
Table of Contents
Page

3
The serial number is located on the rear of the unit. Record this
number in the space provided below. Refer to this when calling your
dealer regarding this product.
Model: Harmony Center
Serial No: _________________________
Date of purchase: ___________________
Thank you for selecting a Legacy Loudspeaker System. These hand-
crafted instruments will provide you with many years of listening en-
joyment.
Owners Record

4
Handcrafted
Beneath the surface of Harmony Center’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 in each piece
of Legacy workmanship. We take pride in getting to know many of our
customers on a first name basis.
Your purchase of this product is backed by the renowned “Legacy
Satisfaction Guarantee”.
The Cabinetry / Our Commitment

5
Legacy Audio supports its customers and products with pride. We cheerfully warrant our loud-
speaker products we manufacture from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of seven
(7) years. Electronic components such as internal amplifiers and digital processors are covered for
three (3)years. Please register your product with Legacy Audio. Should you require service Legacy
will require a proof of purchase in order to honor the warranty - so please keep your receipt.
• The warranty applies to the original owner and is not transferable.
• The warranty applies to products purchased from an “Authorized Legacy Dealer”.
• The warranty on active components such as digital processors or internal amplifiers is limited to three
(3) years of coverage.
• The warranty on dealer stock will extend for a maximum of two years from invoice.
The warranty does not cover transportation costs of product to or from the customer, distributor or
dealer, or related shipping damage.
Exclusions from Warranty
The following situations or conditions are not covered by the Legacy Audio warranty:
• Accidental damage, electrical abuse or associated equipment failure.
• Use inconsistent with recommended operating instructions and specifications
• Damage caused by modification or unauthorized service
• Costs associated with the removal and reinstallation of defective products. Consequential damage to
other products.
• Normal wear such as fading of finishes due to sunlight.
Warranty

6
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.
Unpackin Your Speakers

7
Precautions
If you have any doubts about your ability to properly install in-wall loudspeak-
ers, you should consider the services of a custom installer. If you plan to install
them yourself, always use high quality tools to save time and make the installa-
tion go more smoothly.
The Harmony In-Wall Loudspeaker mounts into standard 4-inch (or greater)
stud depth walls. Determine the final location of the speaker before cutting any
holes since changes to one speaker may affect the others either aesthetically or
acoustically. Look for pipes, wiring or any other conflicting material that might
be damaged before beginning the installation.
WARNING: Wear Eye Protection when cutting drywall. Also be certain there
are no electrical, water, heating, or gas lines inside the wall in the location you
plan to mount your Harmony loudspeakers.
Speaker Installation

8
Installin the Harmony In-Wall Loudspeakers
Packin List
Harmony Center Speaker
Installation Manual
(2) Support Blocks
(4) Support Block Screws
(2) Tensioning Screws
Tools Required
Pencil
Drywall Saw
Level
Phillips Screwdriver
Tape Measure
Mallet
Speaker Installation

9
Due to Harmony’s unique patented design, Installation is identical for new or
existing construction. The Harmony speaker is designed to perform at its best
when the bottom of the speaker is located well off the floor. When wiring, it is
useful to leave several extra feet of speaker cable at the speaker end.
Select the wall locations for
the Harmony system. Legacy
has designed the Harmony
Center to be located either
above or below a thin profile
wall monitor.
Speaker Installation

10
1. Locate and cut opening through drywall centering it on two
studs with the standard 16” spacing. Refer to drawing for
dimensions. In new construction you want to frame the opening
and place the studs at a more convenient location.
Speaker Installation

11
2. Securely attach the two rubber lined wooden
locks to the inside face of the studs, using the two
2 ½” long screws supplied. Use a bubble level to
insure that they are level with each other and
square with the wall. Refer to drawing for location
of the blocks relative to the opening. Use the sup
plied spacers to adjust the separation between
the blocks
3. Temporarily place cabinet in the wall, so that the
two recesses on its back rest on the rubber cov
ered hanger blocks protruding from the wall.
Make sure the cabinet hangs plumb and the
small rubber bumpers on the back of its rim are
just touching the face of the wall. Using an awl or
other suitable device mark the locations of the
two cabinet mounting holes on the face of the
hanger blocks.
Speaker Installation

12
4. Remove the cabinet from wall to expose the hanger blocks.
5. Drill a 1 8” pilot hole, 1 ½” to 2” at each marked location.
6. Connect the wires to the terminal plate located at the bottom of the
cabinet and replace the cabinet in the hanger blocks as before.
a) Strip and terminate speaker cable with spade lugs, banana
plugs or twisted bare wire.
b) Connect each Harmony to the appropriate +, - output termi
nals of your amplifier or receiver. Harmony should not be con
nected in parallel with another speaker to same amplifier channel.
7. Drive the two 1 ½” screws through the rubber grommets into the
cabinet mounting hole and into the hanger blocks. Do not over tighten
and be careful no to dislodge the rubber grommets. Their function is
to prevent cabinet vibrations from being transmitted to the wall.
Speaker Installation

13
Before you purchase loudspeaker wire, check local building codes to make
sure that the wire is rated to comply with applicable local safety codes such
as UL or CL-2. Use only stranded wire no thinner than AWG 16. For runs
longer than 100 feet, we recommend minimum of AWG 14. When pulling
wire, take care not to pull the wire too fast to prevent stretching the wire or
scorching the insulation from friction. Leave 2 to 3 feet of excess loud-
speaker wire at both ends; it is easier to trim off excess wire than to splice
additional wire. When securing the wire inside the walls, be careful not to
pierce the insulation with nails or staples.
Hookin Up Cables

14
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 ef-
fect is well out of the audio bandwidth; inductance can be de-
creased (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.
Hookin Up Cables

15
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 control-
ling factor of the amplifier loudspeaker interface. Excessive resistance can cause ma-
jor shifts of speaker crossover frequencies. The lower the impedance of the loud-
speaker, the greater the effects of series resistance. A 20 foot run of 18 gauge cable
can cause up to 10% deviations of crossover center frequencies. That same 20 feet
can un-damp your damping factor and reduce your systems’ output by one half deci-
bel.
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.
Hookin Up Cables

16
Ideally the loudspeaker would be among the first components selected when assembling a play-
back 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 under-
stood 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 mu-
sic 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.
Amplification

17
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 advan-
tage 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 noto-
riously 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 omnidirectional
transducer with an anechoic sensitivity of 90 dB @ 1w 1m has a full space
efficiency of only 0.63%)
Amplification

18
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 example below.
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.
Amplification

19
Placing a loudspeaker’s baffle in the same plane as a room boundary imparts
a dramatic change In the overall transfer function. While low frequency gain
is welcomed, care must be taken in crossover design to avoid amplitude
anomalies introduced by the wall itself.
The Harmony center was developed using the finest loudspeaker and cross-
over components available. Countless hours of computer modeling were
spent to insure accurate audio reproduction in a variety of installations where
placement compromises must sometimes be made. The Harmony In-Wall
Loudspeakers deliver the high-fidelity audio reproduction you have come to
expect from high-end loudspeakers in a cabinet.
Desi ner’s Notes (From Bill Dudleston)

20
System Type: 5 drivers, 3 way
Tweeter: 1” Silk Dual Diaphragm W
Quadra-Pole Neodymium Motor
Midwoofer: 2 x 5.25” Silver Graphite
Woofer: 2 x 8” Rohacell reinforced
Silver Graphite, cast frame
Low Frequency Ali nment: 3rd Order Assisted
Frequency Response: 49Hz – 25 kHz
Impedance: 4 Ohms
Sensitivity: 91 dB
Recommended Amplification: 15-150 Watts
Crossover Frequency: 300, 3K
Dimensions (H x W x D): 40.75” X 16.25” X 6”
Wei ht: 54 pounds each
Specifications