Sound & Vision reviews the Legend L800

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Comments

  • Dabutcher
    Dabutcher Posts: 2,588
    Thanks for sharing. Peace. D
    MIT Magnum MH-750, Monster HTS 5100MKII, Sony 77" Class - A80CJ Series - 4K UHD OLED,PS4, Def Tech 15” sub,LSIM 706c, Sunfire Signature Grand 425 x 4,Parasound hca 120, LSiM 702 x 4, Oppo 103D, SDA SRS 1.2, Pioneer Elite SC63 , Pioneer Elite BDP-05 “Why did you get married if you wanted big speakers?”
  • stones89
    stones89 Posts: 229
    Yep, thanks for sharing. Interesting, would love to hear these babies compared to my 2.3tl's.
    Basis 2200 Signature, Vector 4, Transfiguration Proteus, Allnic H3000, Meridian 200/563, CJ ET5, McIntosh 501's, Thiel CS6, 3.6, Polk SDA SRS 2.3tl, MIT EVO, KS/Wywires PC's
  • Viking64
    Viking64 Posts: 6,646
    stones89 wrote: »
    Yep, thanks for sharing. Interesting, would love to hear these babies compared to my 2.3tl's.

    I was thinking the exact same thing the entire time I was reading the review. :p
  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 32,922
    edited October 2019
    Thanks.
    I shall peruse anon.

    FWIW, I would love to see Stereophile review 'em (or any of the Legend series, for that matter), to see some quantitative data (to wit, I'd really like to see the measured impedance curve). Unfortunately, since S&V and Stereophile have the same ownership at this point, I doubt that'll happen :(

    EDIT:
    AT A GLANCE

    Plus
    Enveloping soundstage from SDA-Pro tech
    Dynamic, full-range sound
    Flush-mounted elevation module option

    Minus
    Somewhat bulky cabinet design
    Requires SDA-Pro interconnect cable

    "Somewhat bulky cabinet design" ?!?! :p Jeepers, what a silly kvetch.
    (the other minus is pretty silly, too)

  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,902
    I know, right....pretty soon it will be a minus if a speaker requires cables at all. Looks to me like he was searching for something to put on the negative side.
    HT SYSTEM-
    Sony 850c 4k
    Pioneer elite vhx 21
    Sony 4k BRP
    SVS SB-2000
    Polk Sig. 20's
    Polk FX500 surrounds

    Cables-
    Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
    Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
    Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
    Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

    Kitchen

    Sonos zp90
    Grant Fidelity tube dac
    B&k 1420
    lsi 9's
  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 32,922
    edited October 2019
    tonyb wrote: »
    I know, right....pretty soon it will be a minus if a speaker requires cables at all.

    "pretty soon" ?!?

    ;)
    Looks to me like he was searching for something to put on the negative side.
    Yeah, exactly. To me, it looks like their implicit conclusion is that the biggest negative is that there's no negative. :)


  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 32,922
    PS nice synopsis:
    Polk Audio clearly packed a lot of history, effort, and love into its new statement speaker...
    source: https://www.soundandvision.com/content/polk-audio-legend-l800-loudspeaker-review-page-2#QKhfpJLGwKiXAZzi.99
  • rooftop59
    rooftop59 Posts: 7,952
    S&V usually has at least very basic measurements like frequency response on a simple plot don't they?!?
    Living Room 2.2: Usher BE-718 "tiny dancers"; Dual DIY Dayton audio RSS210HF-4 Subs with Dayton SPA-250 amps; Arcam SA30; Musical Fidelity A308; Sony UBP-x1000es; Squeezebox Touch with Bolder Power Supply
    Game Room 5.1.4:
    Denon AVR-X4200w; Sony UBP-x700; Definitive Technology Power Monitor 900 mains, CLR-3000 center, StudioMonitor 350 surrounds, ProMonitor 800 atmos x4; Sub - Monoprice Monolith 15in THX Ultra

    Bedroom 2.1
    Cambridge Azur 551r; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer
  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 32,922
    edited October 2019
    Well... Stereo Review did. Dunno about S&V. I cancelled my subscription about 2 months after the change (which, yeah, was quite some time ago).

    There's jack diddley (as we used to say) in this particular review, though. :|
  • dromunds
    dromunds Posts: 9,969
    tonyb wrote: »
    I know, right....pretty soon it will be a minus if a speaker requires cables at all. Looks to me like he was searching for something to put on the negative side.

    This is something I mentioned in the review of the L200: negativity is ubiquitous, and can be quite implicit. Searching for negativity is a bad trait for a reviewer. He also complained that the SDA cable had to be "stretched on the floor between the speakers." Sheesh. There is implicit bias as well with many reviewers, (not just audio either.)
  • pitdogg2
    pitdogg2 Posts: 24,471
    mhardy6647 wrote: »
    Well... Stereo Review did. Dunno about S&V. I cancelled my subscription about 2 months after the change (which, yeah, was quite some time ago).

    There's jack diddley (as we used to say) in this particular review, though. :|

    Agree there used to be a smidgen more meat to their testing. They have not in years used (or at least published) results for all 5,7,9,11 channels used power ratings on amps or receivers. I miss that stuff, it would at least give you a basic idea of how much grunt the power supply had.
  • Emlyn
    Emlyn Posts: 4,346
    The author was writing for the target audience of the magazine, which is people who are into neat and minimally obtrusive lifestyle home theater systems. Sound seems to have become of secondary interest to them over the years, but they do focus on system setups and display screens pretty well.

    I think he hit his target with the review. Fussy purchasers may not get why an extra cable is needed or why the cabinet is so wide. A sales person is going to have to explain it, but I would not be surprised if some people who purchase the L800s are going to set them up so they're toed in anyway!
  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,704
    He was at Polk the day I was there. Seemed rather distant like he wasn't happy to be there or something.

    I question his choice of associated gear.
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."


    President of Club Polk

  • VR3
    VR3 Posts: 27,964
    I will one day own the L800, yes I will. 😝
    - Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 32,922
    F1nut wrote: »
    He was at Polk the day I was there. Seemed rather distant like he wasn't happy to be there or something.

    I question his choice of associated gear.

    I took the choice of associated gear to be representative of the S&V core audience's interests... but I may mis-interpret them.
  • Tony M
    Tony M Posts: 11,009
    edited October 2019
    From the beginning of the review;

    The specific tweaks made for SDA-Pro include a 15-degree angle to the speaker baffles for both the regular and Dimension driver arrays. This eliminates any need for speaker toe-in since it's already built into the design.

    When did SDAs ever need toeing in? :(

    I'm now going back to continue reading... ;)

    His review made me reminisce about my first experiences with the SDA-SRS2's I was given. To hear sounds come from such an expanse has to be heard in person to truly understand its glory. :pB)

    Most people just listen to music and watch movies. I EXPERIENCE them.
  • Clipdat
    Clipdat Posts: 12,557
    edited October 2019
    "The first cut I played was an audiophile classic, "Time," from Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (CD layer of a multichannel hybrid SACD)."

    Why would he play the Redbook layer of a hybrid SACD?

    Furthermore, why is he using a Panasonic DMP-UB900 Ultra HD Blu-ray player for CD playback?
  • F1nut
    F1nut Posts: 49,704
    Ed Zachary
    Political Correctness'.........defined

    "A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."


    President of Club Polk

  • tonyb
    tonyb Posts: 32,902
    Clipdat wrote: »
    "The first cut I played was an audiophile classic, "Time," from Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (CD layer of a multichannel hybrid SACD)."

    Why would he play the Redbook layer of a hybrid SACD?

    Furthermore, why is he using a Panasonic DMP-UB900 Ultra HD Blu-ray player for CD playback?

    This is why you have to take many of these magazine reviews with a grain of salt. As a professional reviewer, I would be ashamed. When 6 moons does a review, you get the meat most others leave out.



    HT SYSTEM-
    Sony 850c 4k
    Pioneer elite vhx 21
    Sony 4k BRP
    SVS SB-2000
    Polk Sig. 20's
    Polk FX500 surrounds

    Cables-
    Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
    Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
    Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
    Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable

    Kitchen

    Sonos zp90
    Grant Fidelity tube dac
    B&k 1420
    lsi 9's
  • rooftop59
    rooftop59 Posts: 7,952
    edited October 2019
    Again, target audience: IF I was going to actually play a silver disc (which I’m not lol), it would be through my cambridge 752BD, a universal blu ray player, because that’s all I got. BUT...I would never review gear for a publication...
    Living Room 2.2: Usher BE-718 "tiny dancers"; Dual DIY Dayton audio RSS210HF-4 Subs with Dayton SPA-250 amps; Arcam SA30; Musical Fidelity A308; Sony UBP-x1000es; Squeezebox Touch with Bolder Power Supply
    Game Room 5.1.4:
    Denon AVR-X4200w; Sony UBP-x700; Definitive Technology Power Monitor 900 mains, CLR-3000 center, StudioMonitor 350 surrounds, ProMonitor 800 atmos x4; Sub - Monoprice Monolith 15in THX Ultra

    Bedroom 2.1
    Cambridge Azur 551r; Polk RT25i; ACI Titan Subwoofer
  • BlueFox
    BlueFox Posts: 15,251
    edited October 2019
    Geez. What a bunch of whiners. A good review gets published, and the whiners start complaining.

    Edit: Sorry if I offended anyone. I have calmed down, and removed the unnecessary verbiage.
    Post edited by BlueFox on
    Lumin X1 file player, Westminster Labs interconnect cable
    Sony XA-5400ES SACD; Pass XP-22 pre; X600.5 amps
    Magico S5 MKII Mcast Rose speakers; SPOD spikes

    Shunyata Triton v3/Typhon QR on source, Denali 2000 (2) on amps
    Shunyata Sigma XLR analog ICs, Sigma speaker cables
    Shunyata Sigma HC (2), Sigma Analog, Sigma Digital, Z Anaconda (3) power cables

    Mapleshade Samson V.3 four shelf solid maple rack, Micropoint brass footers
    Three 20 amp circuits.
  • Guess I don't understand the hate here for the player selected in the review. Yes, it's two years old, but the specs and reviews for it's audio section were no slouch. It's not like he picked a sony entry 4k UHD player to play CDs on - but one would think that based on the comments. No it's not boutique, stand along CD player, but neither is Polk a boutique speaker company.

    Audio section of the DP-UP900
    Panasonic clearly designed this player with audiophiles in mind. While it can’t play SACD or DVD-Audio discs as some universal audio players do, it does support playback of a variety of hi-res audio formats (besides the usual Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) from attached USB drives or streamed over a wired or wireless network, supported by a 192-kilohertz/32-bit DAC. These include FLAC (up to 192/24, 5.1channel), WAV (192/32, two-channel), ALAC (96/32 up to 7.1-channel or 192/32 in 5.1-channel), and DSD (2.8 megahertz up to 5.1-channel and 5.6 mHz in two-channel). The company says it used high-quality analog circuit components for that part of the audio chain.

    The newer player, the DP-UB9000 even out performs the OPPO-205 audio section which many here love. Neither Panasonic player plays SACD or DVD audio. That is the drawback to these players, but they do play from a hi rez music from a USB drive if you have your music ripped or downloaded there. The reviewer could have done that if they wanted hi rez, but chose not to do it. Don't know why.

    The latest Panasonic review:
    https://hometheaterhifi.com/reviews/video-player/blu-ray/panasonic-dp-ub9000-ultra-hd-4k-blu-ray-player-review-part-2-audio/

    The review in my mind was positive - regardless of the sources used. He sounded like I did the first time I got my 2Bs. I kept putting in CD after CD in the player and filtering through my music to see what next to put on the those speakers. Everything was like listening to music all over again. I got that sense from the review. The negatives were "size", which he said was needed for the SDA and they still went well with his decor. I do agree his "minus" remarks were pretty insignificant based on everthing else he said the Polks did so well.

    Speakers
    Energy RC-70 Mains, Energy RC-LRC Center, Energy RC-R (x4) Rear Channels, Energy RC-R (x2) Front Effects
    Polk 5jr+
    Polk SDA 2B
    Polk SDS 3.1TL

    Equipment
    Panamax 5510 Re-generator Power Conditioner
    Yamaha RX-V3800 Receiver
    Digital Sources: Sony CDP-X339ES CD Player, HHB CDR830 BurnIt Professional CD Recorder, Sony PS3, Oppo DV-983H DVD Player
    Analog Sources: Sony TC-K890ES Cassette, Nakamichi DR-1 Cassette, Technics SL-7 Turntable
  • Viking64
    Viking64 Posts: 6,646
    Another thing stuck out for me:

    "The original SDA models dealt with the issue of interaural crosstalk in a purely acoustic way by using a second set of drivers (the Dimension Array) on each speaker. These directed a "cancellation" signal—essentially, an out-of-phase version of the sound being emitted by the opposite speaker."

    Wasn't this "cancellation signal" an "out-of-phase version" of the interaural crosstalk as opposed to an "out-of-phase version" of the "the sound being emitted by the opposite speaker"?

    It seems that producing an out-of-phase version of the entire signal coming from the stereo drivers (as opposed to the SDA drivers) would possibly degrade the sound in some way. I thought part of the uniqueness of the L800s was the beveled baffle. Or are the classic SDAs closer in design to the Legends than I originally perceived?

    -WCNFSD in Cincinnati

  • VR3
    VR3 Posts: 27,964
    I believe you are seeing what regurgitation looks like versus understanding
    - Not Tom ::::::: Any system can play Diana Krall. Only the best can play Limp Bizkit.
  • K_M
    K_M Posts: 1,627
    SDA technology uses the "Difference signal", obtained by simply going across both positive terminals to create, the difference, or what is not on both channels equally.

    In other words, the opposite of a Summed signal or "Mono"

    Out of phase is simply one signal inverted.

    Same thing as the Early Hafler Circuit, as mentioned in the past.
    Except the hafler circuit placed speakers in the rear of the room, SDA places them literally on the baffle close to the normal stereo drivers.

  • mhardy6647
    mhardy6647 Posts: 32,922
    But... are they peak squirrels or RMS squirrels?

    asking for a friend.