My friend Stew and I visited DUP a few weeks ago and we were very impressed with the sound of his system. However, DUP did everything wrong: he fed one preamp into another, used cheap cables, employed all kinds of crazy equipment, so we decided to check out the Legacy Whispers at a dealer using good equipment and better controlling the listening environment.

Stew brought his equipment: DCS stack - Verdi SACD transport, Purcell upsampler, and Elgar Plus DAC. He also grabbed his MIT Oracle 2.2 Pro cables and off we went to the bowels of Jersey to get a better feel of what the Whispers are capable of.

We picked up DUP at his house and he guided us to the dealer, who had the room prepped for our arrival.

DUP isn't nearly as demented as he looks in this photo

The set up
The dealer let Stew hook up his equipment to the Legacy amp, which was driving the Whispers. The room was about 14'x 20 or so, with the listening position being about 10' away from the speakers. The dealer disconnected the processor, a digital equalizer that comes with the Whispers to allow for room corrections in order to allow us to compare what we heard at DUPs to the new set up.

Set up at the dealer from our listening position

The sound
We listened to our standard set of reference disks. Since Stew was driving this effort (he's considering replacing his Utopias with the Whispers), we listened to mostly classical music with Pink Floyd's Shine On you crazy Diamond thrown in as my personal reference.

We were hoping that the issues we encountered at DUP's, (sound coming from above, lack of front to back soundstaging, and driver integration) would be mitigated with greater distance from the speakers. They were. None of these things existed at the dealer. Alas, the sound was disappointing. Sparkle, air and magic we heard at DUP's was missing. This is not to say that it sounded bad, but it didn't sound much better than Stew's set up (that's saying a lot considering that Whispers are half the price of the Utopia's), but Stew wanted that magic, that envelopment that was missing. We heard Spem in Alium by Tallis Scholars at DUP's and it sounded as though we were in the cathedral. The same disk sounded duller, contained, as if it was recorded in a vacuum. (that's an extreme exaggeration to give you an idea of what was lacking.) There was very good side to side and front to back soundstaging. Clarity and frequency extension were all there. What was missing was air surrounding the instruments and singers. The magic was missing.

I don't know why that was the case. There are too many variables with which to contend. Perhaps the dealer's room was too damped (DUP's room is very live.) If that's the case, then that's the best that Stew can hope for because his listening room is very damped as well. He has bookshelves lined with books on one side, soft furniture and paintings on the other, and a rug on the floor. Whatever, the reason, Stew was disappointed.

Behold, surprise awaits
Before packing up, I asked the dealer if we could hear the Legacy Focus speakers. Since I'm on the market for a pair speakers (I'm considering Magnepans 3.6R,) I figured I'd give the Focus a try given that at $6400 they fall within my range of consideration. I was floored by what I heard. No, they weren't as good as the Whispers. They lacked the refinement in the mid and upper mid range, but they were good. Bass was excellent: tight, deep, controlled, articulate and detailed. The images they projected were smaller than the Whisper's but no much so. If I had to quantify their performance, I would say that they delivered 80% of Whisper's performance for 40% of the price. I was stunned. Focus' performance reminded me of the Sonus Faber Elipsa. I didn't particularly care for the Elipsa because I felt that Elipsa's midrange and highs weren't refined enough for the $20k asking price and that the bass doesn't extend deep enough. Now, imagine Elipsa at $6400 except that the Focus are better! No shit! The Focus bass is deeper, and whereas their midrange and upper mids aren't as refined as the Whisper's, Nova Utopia's or Sonus Faber's Stradivari's, the overall sound is pretty damn good considering the fact that I'm comparing them to $40k speakers. Then, John the dealer gave me an offer that he hoped I couldn't refuse: he offered me a floor sample for the price that made it competitive with the Magnepans. I got to admit it, I got wood. I didn't audition the Magnepans for a long time, but there was a certain kind of magic that Magnepans had. I felt I needed to listen to them one more time before making a decision. I'm probably going to do that this coming week. Regardless of the decision I make, the Focus are VERY impressive speakers and are definitely worth the schlep to Jersey in order to audition.

A mixed bag
The three of us went to dinner after the session, trying to figure out what to do next. Poor Stew was completely bewildered. He knew that the Whispers had the potential to sound better than his set up at half the price, but now he didn't know whether he would be able to bring out that full potential. Perhaps it's the room acoustics, perhaps it's teh 2400watts of biamped power per channel , perhaps it's the cheap cables or perhaps that the DCS stack isn't all it's cracked up to be.

On the other hand, I was elated. I found a relative bargain of a speaker that's a giant killer! Just like the Magnepans, the Focus play with the big boys. They give you the kind of performance that you can't even begin to touch for under $20k. I still want to hear the Maggies again using my reference CDs, but I have a feeling that whatever my decision is going to be, it's going to be a close call.

DUP's lair

After dinner, I asked DUP if it would be ok for us to stop by his house so that I could take pictures of his set up. Being the gracious host that he is, DUP agreed. We hung out at DUP's house for a while, taking pictures, and shooting the shit. Here's his set up. Enjoy.

Dup's listening room
This is DUP's listening/living room. Notice how close the speakers are to the wall and the close seating position to the speakers. Note, DUP's electronics are in a different room.

The entire rack is filled with all kinds of stuff

Top half of the rack

Bottom half of the rack

Van Alstine modified Hafler amps fed into the phase inverter (not seen). DUP bi-amps his Whispers, so these two amps power a single channel. BTW, notice the cooling fans. That room is HOT

Preamps and digital processors

Power conditioners. Note there's another power conditioning box just at the edge of the frame

EQ curve. This is how DUP likes to listen to music. Who am I to say anything?

We hung out for quite some time, trying to analyze the reasons for such a disparity in sound quality between DUP's set up and what we heard at the dealer. We decided that there were too many variables to determine the exact cause. The most likely culprit is the room acoustics, but even that's conjecture at best.

Stew (right) was visibly impressed by the incredible sound generated by all this crap

Overall, we had a good time. Even though the demo wasn't all what we wanted it to be, it was educational none the less and it gave Stew some food for thought. He may not have to change his speakers. Perhaps he needs to change his room's acoustics. He'll have to decide that for himself. Alas, looking at the Hafler 2500 watt clock, it was time to head home.

Many thanks to DUP for hosting once again and many thanks to John at Rock Dreams Electronics in NJ for showcasing the Whispers and the Focus. The experience was very educational. It gave Stew food for thought and it gave me yet another speaker to consider as my next purchase.