Good morning ... This was posted at Home Theater Shack yesterday:
Good morning - It's time for another update. Over the last few days, a lot of listening has been done between the Legacy's and the Axiom M100's.
The music tracks involved have been quite the variety from the Legacy Disc, Uriah Heep Live (1973 - a really cool disc), Diana Krall Live from Paris DVD, Michael Stanley Live From Tangiers CD: link, Pink Floyd's "The Wall" (of course), Steely Dan's 2 Against Nature and Aja and a compilation of Mozart.
Both the M100's and the Signature SE's make for some excellent listening. This trait mentioned earlier of the M100's sounding more like the performers were on stage while the Legacy's sound more like the recording studio has become more than a possible trait - it's something even casual listeners are noticing.
In 1988, I purchased the Legacy Model 1's from Bill Dudleston. Back then, when a call was made to Legacy, Bill answered the phone. He was genuinely excited about his loudspeakers, selling them direct to the consumer. He offered an in home trial period LONG before other companies thought of this.
Moving 27 years into the future, when emailing Legacy, Bill answered, and we had a terrific conversation. He had a passion for music, and for making accurate speakers in 1988 and he still does.
The Signature SE's remind me a lot of the Infinity IRS Sigmas (a $10,000 per pair speaker 15 years ago), but with the ability to handle macrodynamics much better than the IRS did. The IRS Sigmas had a hard time with making music that "rocked the house" even with a McIntosh MA-6900 powering them. The Signature SE's will play louder than I can stand even with the Marantz receiver.
Bass is deep and tight, vocals are crystal clear, and imaging is precise. Every instrument comes through the Legacy's sounding like the instrument should.
In contrast to the Signature SE's, the Axioms give up a little in how clear the vocals are, and the bass is not quite as deep. The Axioms DO deliver a wider and deeper soundstage - and bring this whole experience of "listening to the performance on stage" to life.
For example, on the "playground scene" from The WALL ... where the guy is threatening no pudding if one does not eat one's meat, the Axioms place the children in the background outside the side walls (there is a joke in there somewhere), where the Legacy's have the children coming from the speakers.
On Amanda Rubarth's Novocaine, each lyric is amazingly clear on the Legacy's, while the Axioms require more of one's attention. The Axioms have more depth and width of sound stage, which again extended outside the speakers.
The Michael Stanley Live at Tangiers disc has become a standard bearer over the last couple of weeks, and both speaker pairs were "doing their thing" while switching back and forth.
The Legacy's were intimate, making one want a scotch and a cigar. The Axioms were "live", making one want to give a dirty look to the moron three rows back thinking it was ok to fire up a joint.
Both speakers can handle pretty much anything you throw at them, and there will be more details coming after more listening sessions. The next experiment is going to be blocking a port or three on the Axioms to see what effect this has in the bass department.
