As far as the center, that is where the majority of the dialogue comes from and I focused on that during my listening session.
First, I LOVE ribbons and electrostats. I am getting older and am going to have to move to something smaller and so I am getting rid of my 2 channel setup which I never use since it sits upstairs and want to just go to a HT that also plays music excellent.
My two channel speakers are Apogee Stage speakers which just sit there. I thought about making them my left and right for HT, but they are too wide and I don't know what I would do for the center. But that's the kind of open sound I like.
I made it a point to listen to some badly recorded movie dialogue and wanted to hear the Legacy speakers both because they have an excellent reputation and they have that super ribbon tweeter.
I listened to the Signatures and the DI's. It took literally 10 seconds to determine (at least to my ears) that the Signatures were not in the same league as the DI even though they cost around $7000.
So then I moved to the Focus speakers which I want to say are about $11000. I really liked their sound and they are finished very nicely. This was more of a fair fight. I thought they were very close even though the DI speakers were not broken in. The Legacys supposedly get compared to speakers twice their cost and here a set of $3000 speakers was right there with them.
I used the Legacy Silhouette Center with the Legacy Audio Signatures. The sound was great. I put in the movie soundtrack and it sounded very good to me. As good as my memory told me that the Paradigm Persona sounded on them (wish they were there for a head to head).
Dave did not have a Tekton center so we had to move one of the DI speakers over to do the center duty and the Focus speakers were the sides. Not the best, but my real priority was to see how the dialogue sounded through that tweeter array versus a really good ribbon.
I thought the DI did an even better job than the Focus did, but I have to admit that it was close. The Focus speakers are no joke. But they are about 3X the cost and I still think the DI speakers are just a little better. You can't go wrong with either, but with the cost difference, I just don't think there was a real comparison. You can make the argument that the Focus are better looking - and they are, but too big a difference in cost.
Plus, in a HT, when you think that you have to buy the surrounds and the centers, all of the cost difference really adds up. The surrounds that sounded as good as the Focus for me were the Calibre and they are $5500 a pair and large. They sound great. but you take a look at what a HT with Legacy will cost and what a Tekton will cost for the same or better sound, and it made it easy. Plus, I am sure the double tweeter array will be even better.
