Legacy AERIS User manual

Owners Manual For The
AERIS
Loudspeaker System

2
THANK YOU FOR
CHOOSING
LEGACY AUDIO
Aeris is a full range loudspea er system utilizing the present state of
the art in driver, crossover, amplifier and acoustic radiation control
technologies.
The system is designed, assembled and tested in Springfield, Illinois
by a dedicated group of engineers, craftsmen, and music lovers.
Please ta e a few moments to learn more about the features and con-
trols of these instruments to assure full enjoyment.

3
Registration
Owners Record 4
The Ca inetry / Our Commitment 5
Warranty 6
Setup
Speaker Installation 7
Hooking Up Ca les 8-9
Amplification 10-12
Speaker Connections 13-14
Wavelaunch Processor 15-23
Technology
Continuing the Pursuit of Perfection 24-25
Specifications 26
Table of Contents
Page

4
The serial num er is located on the rear of the unit. Record this
num er in the space provided elow. Refer to this when calling your
dealer regarding this product.
Model: AERIS
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

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Handcrafted
Beneath the surface of AERIS’s elegant exterior lies rigid MDF
construction. Interlocking joinery maximizes the strength of the ca inet
parts. Polyester fi erfill is selected for internal damping. A sharp rap on
the enclosure will leave you with little more than ruised knuckles.
Each ca inet is impecca ly finished on all exposed surfaces with select
veneers. The exquisite finish is hand-ru ed 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 asis.
Your purchase of this product is acked y the renowned “Legacy
Satisfaction Guarantee”.
The Cabinetry / Our Commitment

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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 transfera le.
• 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, distri utor or
dealer, or related shipping damage.
Exclusions from Warranty
The following situations or conditions are not covered y the Legacy Audio warranty:
• Accidental damage, electrical a use or associated equipment failure.
• Use inconsistent with recommended operating instructions and specifications
• Damage caused y 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

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To allow more flexi ility in seating arrangements, your Legacy loudspeaker is
designed for road lateral coverage. Optimal listener position is actually
a out 5 to 15 degrees off the axis normal to the loudspeaker affle. Assum-
ing a listener distance of a out 10-12 feet, egin y placing the speakers ap-
proximately 8-10 feet apart and a out 1 – 3 feet from the wall ehind 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 lis-
tening 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 o tained vertically with the lis-
tener'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 oundary will generally increase low frequency impact. If you are
forced to position one or oth of your loudspeakers in a corner, e prepared
to reduce ass output via the XP-4080 or with your preamp's ass tone
control.
Spea er Placement

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The ideal conductor would have negligi le resistance, inductance
and capacitance. The ta le elow shows how a few actual speaker
ca les measure up.
Ca le 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 ca le ecause its ef-
fect is well out of the audio andwidth; inductance can e de-
creased (at the expense of increased capacitance) y keeping the
conductor pair closely spaced.
How long would a ca le have to e efore inductance effects would
impinge on the audio spectrum? Approximately 300 feet of 12 gauge
would e required to esta lish a corner frequency of 20 kHz with an
8 Ohm loudspeaker. As you see, inductance is not a pro lem for
most of us.
Hoo ing Up Cables

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What a out phase shift due to frequency dependent travel times down the speaker
ca le? Measurements show that 100 Hz waves will e delayed a out 20 illionths of a
second ehind 10 kHz waves when traveling to the end of a 10 foot speaker ca le.
Since the cilia of the ear requires 25,000 times longer than this just to transmit phase
information, phase shifting is o viously not the primary concern when considering
speaker ca les.
What a out 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 ca le
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 y onehalf deci-
el.
In summary, there are no perfect ca les. The est way to approximate the ideal
would e to keep loudspeaker leads as short as is practical.
Hoo ing Up Cables

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Ideally the loudspeaker would e among the first components selected when assem ling a play-
ack system. This would allow the user to choose an amplifier capa le of delivering adequate
amounts of current into the frequency dependent load presented y 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 een 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 e under-
stood that the role of the amplifier goes eyond that of driving loudspeakers to a given sound
pressure level. The amplifier should e a le to CONTROL the loudspeakers across the entire mu-
sic spectrum. This means that parameters such as damping factor (values greater than 60 are
accepta le) and dynamic headroom should not e overlooked when comparing amplifiers.
Amplification

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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 ackground music. A
typical 45 watt per channel receiver may fill a room with the compressed
mid- and energy of “heavy metal,” ut seem to lack weight or control with
classical recordings. Some audiophiles feel that 200 watts per channel is the
are minimum to avoid audi le clipping distortion when reproducing music
at “live” play ack levels. Your Legacy speakers are designed to take advan-
tage of “high-powered” amplifiers, so don’t e afraid to put them through
their paces.
How much is too much power? Rarely is a drive unit damaged y 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

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When an amplifier is una le to fulfill your loudspeakers demands, a
damaging harmonic spike may e 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 it a stract, consider the example elow.
The average acoustical power developed y a person speaking in a
conversational tone corresponds to a mere 0.00001 Watts. The power that
would e developed y the entire population of the city of New York
speaking at once would arely illuminate a single 100 Watt light ul .
Amplification

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Connecting the Spea ers
Connect the L, R speaker ca les from each upper range amplifier channel
to the respective speaker’s +, - inding posts. You may use spades, are
wire or locking anana pins. Be sure that no stray wires ridge etween
the input posts to prevent electrical shorting and take care that correct po-
larity (+, -) is o served .
When wiring connections are completed as a ove, complete the AC connec-
tion to the external socket of the internal amplifiers of each Aeris speaker
y connecting the provided cord to the room wall plate, power strip or
power filtration unit. Power up the processor next via the rear panel
switch, and finally rock the I/O switch on the rear panel of the Aeris to the
“I” position to turn on the internal amplifiers. Note that these amplifiers are
green compliant, idling at a few watts. They will automatically turn them-
selves on when a music signal is present, providing up to total of 1000
watts of power to the woofers.
Crossover Illumination
Aeris enefits from premium Clarity capacitors, Kim er HF Silver wire and
custom wound copper coils. We have made it possi le to view the internal
crossover and the dipolar midrange/mid ass alignment y rocking the
Crossover Illumination switch to the ON position. A series of low-voltage,
long-life LEDs will allow viewing. To defeat the illumination feature, simple
rock the switch into the down position.
Spea er Connections

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XP-4080 Processor Cable Connections
From To
Left channel of preamp output Processor Input 1 and Input 3* (use Y adapter)
Right channel of preamp output Processor Input 2 and Input 4* (use Y adapter)
Processor Output 1 Left Aeris rear panel Bass Input (XLR)
Processor Output 2 Left channel input to amplifier driving Aeris upper range
Processor Output 5 Right Aeris rear panel Bass Input (XLR)
Processor Output 6 Right channel input to amplifier driving Aeris upper range
*The redundant feed of left and right input signals to the processor allows a low frequency correction algorithm to e ap-
plied. This compensates for the decrease in channel separation at longer wavelengths in listening rooms. This algorithm
may e defeated at any time y muting inputs 3,4 on the processor’s front panel.
Spea er Connections

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The high definition Digital Wavelaunch Processor hosts a LEGACY custom algorithm which automatically loads when the proc-
essor is powered on. Factory settings are ‘plug and play’, and do not require a computer to utilize. Connections etween the
preamp, power amplifier, and speakers should e as shown on previous page.
Selecting the Program
1. Press the MENU left arrow
2. Scroll through the programs using the jo wheel
3. Press enter to select the program of choice
4. Press enter again to confirm selection. The program will now load.
Users are welcome to load the included software and learn to make individual adjustments as desired. However it is recom-
mended that any changes e saved as Program 6 or higher to avoid overwriting the factory settings.
Wave Launch Processor

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Downloading and Installing the XConsole software
Downloading
From Included CD
Your Wave Launch Processor will come with a CD or USB drive containing the XConsole
software. Insert the CD and find the install file. Move/Save the install file to your
computer.
From Xilica We site
- Go to www.xilica.com
- Click on the “Downloads” ta at the top of the screen
- Click “XConsole” on the Left and then Click “Software”
- Click “XConsole software” to start the download
- Save and Extract the installation file on your computer
Installing
- Dou le click on the install file and follow the on– screen instructions to install the software.
Wave Launch Processor

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The XP processor will allow you to ma e adjustments to your system from a laptop computer
from your listener position.
Connecting Your Computer with the XP-4080 Processor
- Connecting will require a long USB Device ca le. These can e found at most electronic or ig ox stores. It is the
same ca le that a USB printer would use. This 16 ft ca le is availa le at Radio Shack.
http://www.radioshac .com/product/index.jsp?productId=3584358&filterName=Length&filterValue=16-20+ft.
- Once the ca le is connected, start the XConsole software. It will ask “Do you want to connect to the device?”, answer
“No” for now.
- You now must access the Windows Device Manager. This processes can vary depending on the version of Windows in
use, ut typically it is found in the Control Panel. Then click on “System.” On the ta s across the top, click “Hardware”
and then “Device Manager” This will ring up a list, find “Ports (COM & LPT)” and click the plus (+) next to it. You
should then find a device called “Silicon La s CP210x USB to UART Bridge” with a COM num er listed next to it. This
num er will change on all computers, ut take note of this num er.
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
Wave Launch Processor

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- Go ack to the XConsole software. At the top of the screen click “Setup” then “Port Connections” This ring up a new
dialog ox. Select the COM port num er you o tained from the device manger and click “OK.” The software will warn
you that you must restart the software for your changes to take effect.
- Restart the XConsole software. This time, when it asked “Do you want to connect to the device?”, answer “Yes”.
- You should now e connected to the device and ready to use.
Room Equalization
Before making adjustments with your processor, a asic understanding of parametric and graphic equalization is needed.
Parametric filters allow you to control the three primary parameters of a useful and-pass filter. These parameters
are amplitude ( oost or cut), center frequency (pitch) and andwidth (tonal range). Bandwidth is typically la eled "Q" on the
unit, which stands for Q factor. The amplitude of each and can e controlled, and the center frequency can e shifted, and
widened or narrowed.
Simpler graphic filters are fixed in frequency and andwidth, so the music spectrum is divided into uniform third-octave spac-
ings.
Wave Launch Processor

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Ma ing Adjustments with Wavelaunch Processor
After installing the included software, connect the processor to the computer via a USB ca le.
Launch the XConsole software.
When asked if you want to connect to the device, click yes.
In the Device List, click on the device that is connected. This will launch the program that is currently on the processor.
Wave Launch Processor

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In the Device List, click on the device that is connected. This will launch the program that is currently on the processor.
Adjustments to the processor can e made to “Input 1: Left” and “Input 2: Right”.
Clicking on “In 1: Left” opens the controls for the Left speaker.
In this window, you are presented with 31 channels of graphic EQ and 8 channels of parametric EQ.
Wave Launch Processor