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Legacy XD series for tube amplifier thoughts

When I look at the landscape of full-range speakers, there are many options of course, especially in the $10K to $15K range. But the vast majority of those speakers demand SS amplification, mainly due to the idea of driving woofers efficiently. Yes, there are speakers that are efficient and can be driven full range with tube gear but it often seems a compromise, especially when it comes to room size and the ability to tune a room for best bass response. Then it seems it becomes a bit of a crap shoot finding a speaker that is dynamic, resolving, bass that is not shy about reaching depths that much of our music explores and doesn't cost north of $25K. Oh, and is tube friendly. 

I do have a thread opened on Harbeth 40.3 speaker but ultimately felt it was not a match for our room and some of our music. We want to play it all.

Which leads me to the Legacy XD line. Highly efficient it seems. Built-in woofers that go really low cleanly and have SOTA flexibility for in-room response. What's wrong with these speakers?

128x128desalvo55
bubba12's avatar
bubba12
436 posts
 

I own the Aeris and the bass is incredible.

tuberist
951 posts
 

See my rig, Terry London gave a very accurate description of NSMT. Wish I had the jack for the 100s, they must be incredible. Deep bass and tone sounds real. Plays well with tubes. Good luck on your quest.

audiolui
295 posts
 

I have a pair of Focus XD and their bass is outstanding.  Two 12" each side is a lot of bass.  And the bass is well defined, tight and deep.  Subs would be nice but they take up too much bass.  And you also need to spend time to integrate the subs with the main speakers.  I don't need subs with the XD.  They are outstanding speakers at their current asking price.  I used to own Revel Salon 2 and Thiel CS7.2.  The XD blows them away in the bass department.  You can try XD for a month as Legacy Audio is happy to accommodate that.  That is what I did.  

audiom3
151 posts
 

I have owned Legacy since the late '90s.  A few years ago I was looking for a change in sound.  But during the height of Covid, it was nearly impossible to listen to a few contenders that I had picked out because stores were basically abandoned at the time.  Some would take appointments but I didn't want to drag them all the way in and not like what I heard.  Anyway, I really wanted to hear the Sopra 3s and Magico A5s which were brand new at that time.  After a futile effort of trying to track these two down, I just picked up the phone and called Legacy.  I asked them about powering a new pair of Focus SEs with my Ayre VX-5 Twenty and if it would provide enough juice to them (350w/channel @ 4ohms).  They said, absolutely, so I I bought a pair that day.  And I'm so happy that I did.  They saved me quite a sum of money that I had already earmarked for speakers too. 

The Focus OGs that I was running had (3) 12" woofers each but produced significantly less deep and overall bass than the SEs.  And imaging is no comparison.  The new AMTs are simply awesome.  So I can imagine just about any quality tube amp would suffice for the mids/highs on a pair of XDs.

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