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Multiple Knockouts: Peak Consults' Dragon Legacy Loudspeaker with Audionet's Stern/Bohr/Heisenberg/Gauss Combo
Twenty-five years after their founding, and 16 years after Stereophile last reviewed a Peak Consult loudspeaker, the Danish company released its new 500lb Dragon Legacy ($225,000/pair) at Munich High End. At the same time, Peak Consult, which Wilfried Ehrenholz, former audio of Dynaudio, took over in 2014, is finally beginning to reach out to the US market. After hearing the Dragon Legacy, I'm convinced that Sunil Merchant of Sunny's Components in E. Covina, CA will soon be joined by other dealers in the US.
"We built this crazy, solid 4-layer walnut and wenge cabinet, with three layers of damping, in our own cabinet shop," Ehrenholz explained. "It's 46mm thick, includes a special damped crossover compartment filled with sand, and absolutely stable. The top layer of the side walls has 14mm solid walnut. With drivers from Scanspeak and Audio Technology, we use the most exclusive high-quality components in the crossover. Everything is developed to the limit. The Dragon Legacy goes by far beyond anything I have created in my lifetime. And I created it because I wanted to have a better system at home." The speaker's specified sensitivity is 89dB and nominal impedance 4 ohms.
Because Peak Consult lacks the resources of much bigger Dynaudio, it uses legendary speaker designer Karl-Heinz Fink's Fink Audio-Consulting facility in Essen to help achieve the Dragon Legacy's level of performance. "Together, Karl-Heinz and I have over 80 years experience with speaker development," said Ehrenholz.
Together with Audionet's Stern preamplifier ($48,750), forthcoming Bohr phono preamplifier (projected at $38,000), Heisenberg power amplifiers ($105,000/pair), and Gauss magnetic field liberators invented by Jan Geschke ($1920/four or $2600/six), and In-Akustik Air Silver cabling, this system made music like few others I've encountered this year at shows.
My first listen was to the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. After coaxing the man in charge to up the volume level"It's a huge organ, you know"I discovered every octave perfectly in balance, with the bottom rock solid. Nothing was overly bright, and every note sounded clear and grounded in truth. And that was from a 16/44.1 CD!
Then we turned to an LP of Duke Ellington's 1959 Jazz Party. I regret that I have no information on the turntable/arm/cartridge. Highs were perfect on Ellington's "Malletoba Spark." Dominique Fils-Aimé's lamentably overplayed "The Birds" sounded far more delicate than usual, with the biggest and most believable bass I've ever heard.
"This system gets it all," I wrote about speakers and electronics more than worthy of review.
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