Legacy FOCUS SE Owner's Manual

4 Warranty 5 Setup Unpacking Your Speakers 6 Speaker Installation 7 Hooking Up Cables 8-9 Amplification 10-12 Foot Installation 13-16 Speaker Connections 17-21 Fine Tuning 22 Technology Continuing the Pursuit of Perfection 23-24 Specifications 25 Table of Contents Page

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 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.

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

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

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. Unpacking Your Speakers

designed for broad lateral coverage. Optimal listener position is actually about 5 to 15 degrees off the axis normal to the loudspeaker baffle. Assum- ing a listener distance of about ten feet, begin by placing the speakers ap- proximately 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 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 obtained 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 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. Speaker Placement

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. Hooking Up Cables

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 onehalf 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. Hooking Up Cables

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.

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 than 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%)

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

Step 2 - Locate the cone feet set. It will be inside the foam pieces that held the speaker in the box. Foot Installation

Step 4 - Thread the cone insert into the cabinet. Foot Installation

may stop here. Step 6 - Place the leveling washer onto the cone. Foot Installation

cone until your speaker is level. Foot Installation

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.) Connect each channel of your 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. Speaker Connections

speaker. 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. When biwiring, we recommend the use of gold spade lugs or dual ba- nana plugs. This can make the task much easier and safer than bare wire connec- tions. 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 to be routed to a separate channel of amplification, reducing strain on the satellite ampli- fier 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). Speaker Connections

Vertical biamplification requires the dedication of a single stereo amplifier for the left speaker, and another stereo amplifier for the right speaker. This configuration im- proves 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 split- ter, such as a dual amp balancer, which will also allow adjustment of subwoofer/ satellite input levels. 2. Horizontal Biamping Any two stereo amplifiers may be utilized in horizontal biamplification. Many audio- philes 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 am- plifiers 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 in- dependent 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 Speaker Connections

ers 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 sub- woofer. Active Biamping This option requires the utilization of an electronic (powered) external crossover. Ac- tive 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 ac- tive crossover is inserted between the preamplifier outputs and the inputs of two ste- reo 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 con- trols 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). Speaker Connections

with the existing passive filters within the speaker system, be sure to allow for ade- quate 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 af- forded 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. Speaker Connections

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. TREBLE Trim: - Nominally flat in the up position - Negative 2dB at 10 kHz in the down position (shelving for brighter rooms) BASS Trim: - Nominally flat in the up position - Negative 2dB at 60 Hz in the down position (also raises impedance for budget receivers) Fine Tuning

lection of ribbon tweeters from the world over and always loved the way good ribbons reproduced the swishing sound of brushes on a snare- and the simple honesty in the reproduction of strings without imparting an edgy ringing effect found in most tweeters. There’s just something right about the sound – like a C12 mic capsule. If one could increase the dynamics to natural levels and extend the range of ribbons without beaming undesirably, the benefit would be considerable musically. I have always been a proponent of low mass, high acceleration drive elements. The acceleration capability of the drivers ultimately determines the transient or waveform tracing capability of the loudspeaker. To build a better speaker, one MUST first acknowledge that loudspeakers are dread- fully slow by nature. Their responsiveness lags the electrical waveforms settling time by orders of magnitude (Logically so, if one contrasts the mass of an electron to the mass of a speaker dia- phragm.). Typical of transducers (devices that convert one form of energy to another), speakers are also ex- tremely inefficient -wasting more than 98% of their input power in the form of heat and out of phase motion. For these two reasons I have been working with speaker driver motors with magnetic field strengths as high as 2 Tesla (60,000 times the field strength of our planet Earth) to overcome these limita- tions. With such field strength, greater levels of articulation are possible at the lower limits of a transducer. For example, the reproduction of a simple strike of a heavy anvil will reveal tones that are richer, darker and more complex than otherwise possible. In 2006 Legacy Audio introduced our first air motion transducer; a modernized version of the AMT tweeter developed by Oskar Heil in the 1970s. Legacy’s first version utilizes a folded Kapton (not mylar) diaphragm and R45 neodymium wafers instead of ceramic magnets. The result was higher efficiency and greater power handling. This translated to significant gains in dynamic range and reduced distortion. We soon adapted an existing 4” planar ribbon (the one with the round faceplate) to work in conjunction with this tweeter to facilitate the voicing of the hand-off to our 7” driver. Continuing the Pursuit of Perfection (Legacy Air Motion Ribbons)

smoothest high efficiency 8” midrange built to date. I have yet to find a driver to challenge it. This silky 8” mid has a range of 7 octaves with nary a wrinkle in the response, yet a sensitivity of 98 dB. My initiative of providing a 4” AMT that could compliment these capabilities was met with the challenge of accordion-folding sixteen square inches of Kapton into the 4” long, 1” wide chamber. Neodymium again was employed to provide the flux density required. But the solution was made even more elegant by mounting the new 4” ribbon on the same faceplate as its complementary 1” AMT ribbon super-tweeter. The results were more uniform dispersion and tremendous attack. Treble now had weight instead of tizz. A natural fullness in the treble is exhibited that reminds us why we love high-end audio so much. The effortless way it forcefully squeezes out acoustic energy is readily verified by placing ones hand over the driver faceplate and feeling the suction against your palm (nope, you won’t hurt it). These new drivers may be refined, but are equally rugged. I am fortunate to have chosen loudspeaker development as my life’s work. It has utilized my chemical engineering, physics and mathe- matics background almost daily. It has offered moments of both humility and glory, but most gratifying is the reward of continual, stair- stepped successes even after 30 years. I sense that this is a never ending staircase to be followed for generations as we asymptotically approach unattainable perfection. Bill Dudleston, Chief Designer, Founder of Legacy Audio Continuing the Pursuit of Perfection (Legacy Air Motion Ribbons)

Tweeter: Dual Air Motion Tweeter System- 1" AMT super tweeter, Kimber silver HF wire Woofer: 2 x 12" spun aluminum diaphragm, rubber surround, total enclosed neo motor, long throw suspension, with Impedance: 4 Ohms Sensitivity: 95.4 dB Recommended Amplification: 10-500 Watts Crossover Frequency: 120, 2.8K, 8K Binding Posts 2 Pair Dimensions (H x W x D): 55 X 14 X 15.375 Shipping Weight: 177 pounds Shipping Dimensions (H x W xD): 62 x 22 x 22 cast frame Low Frequency Alignment: Assisted 6th order, Butterworth, vented Frequency Response: 18Hz – 30 kHz Midrange: Dual Air Motion Tweeter System- 4" AMT tweeter Midwoofer: 2 x 7” Silver Graphite, cast frame

Springfield, IL 62702 USA 800-283-4644 States that this product is in conformity with the with the essential requirements and other relevant provisions of: Low Voltage Directive 2006/95/EC EMC Directive 2004/108/EC CE Declaration of Conformity WEEE Compliance Product Disposal— Certain international, national and/or local laws and/or regulations may apply regarding the disposal of this product. For further detailed information, please contact the retailer where you purchased this product or the Legacy Audio Distributor in your country. A listing of Legacy Audio Distributors can be found on the Legacy Audio website www.legacyaudio.com or by contacting Legacy Audio at: 3023 E. Sangamon Ave., Springfield, IL 62702, USA—Phone: +1 217 544-3178.

3023 E Sangamon Ave. Springfield, IL 62702 Phone: 800-283-4644 Fax: 217-544-1483