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Legacy Wavelet Attempted Review (Speaker Processor)

Rate this audio processor

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 161 93.6%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 6 3.5%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 1 0.6%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 4 2.3%

  • Total voters
    172

Loathecliff

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Being polite, those Bohmer innards disappoint.
Is there anything 'high-end' in the thing?
From a construction angle I'd rather gaze upon this:-
proxy-image.jpeg

It's a cheapo department store own brand amp from a couple of decades ago, and I never thought it was anything special, until today.
 

newaudioguy77

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Oh wow. For this kind of money, excellent performance should be guaranteed. We see just the opposite.

This review recalled my memory of a post I read on audiogon.com

A member writes about reading one of Amir's reviews that falls in lowest performing area on the graph. And for some reason, buys the product anyway.

The result? The audiogon member loved it! Everyone who replied to his discussion agreed with him.
 

Aperiodic

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I had thought that Anthony Cordesman, who has reviewed several Wavelet-based Legacy speakers, had pretty good ears, so maybe this one isn't working as designed -- or maybe it is.
With all due respect to Anthony Cordesman, his ears- however good- are 82 years old so maybe shouldn't be considered the last word.
 

Eurasian

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AFAIK, it's the same with Dirac. U need internet connection and the measurements are sent to a Dirac server for calculations and generating filters. After that, u are free to play with target curves etc. I think it's the same with Audiolense and Trinnov, but it's been a while since I used them, so not 100% sure on those...
They do it to protect their code and patents.

Edit, enricoclaudio beat me..:)
Audiolense filters are generated in the user‘s licensed software/hardware - so free standing.
 

steve59

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Dec 18, 2019
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Does that mean that you Yanks now also use Meters and Grams?

But no, actually the international standard is quite different. From wiki:

:cool:
But yes, 1.000 would still be wrong, should be 1 000 :)
take a nap.
 

steve59

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Yikes, I was pining after this piece. 56 bit resolution, trillions of calculations per second, yummy. oh well
 

CedarX

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take a nap.
:D:D:Dat the discussion about dots & commas… The actual “number” is the same—it is what it is—but the “perception” varies depending on who’s reading: isn’t it (bad) audiophile talk?
 

Katji

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I was brought up that one thousand is 1,000 and a million is 1,000,000

P.S. And a decimal point is just that typed eg. 23.56. So I suppose a million and twenty three *point* five six I'd type as 1,000,023.56 (Oh Gawd, the bloomin' great hole I'm digging for myself here...)

I'll get me coat (mumble mumble)
I'm sticking to it. There was some period...[oh,ffflip, I didn't mean that] - when they decreed it to be comma for point here [SA] - like 1 comma 5, and it was not when decimal system was introduced - which I think was mid-1960s, but then it somehow reverted...I don't know whether that was official or not.

And a period is a period - time period or female period.
 

Mike-48

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Feb 2, 2020
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Thanks, @amirm , for pointing out (again) that your SINAD measurement was confirmed by another report; and thanks, @Aperiodic, for reminding me that AHC is even (substantially) older than I am.

I've always wondered if the Wavelet system might provide even better results than I get with ARC (on Anthem's STR Preamp). After seeing these measurements, I'll stop musing about that for good. (My only complaint about ARC is that I'd like a little more flexibility in changing the target curve, such as applying user-specified EQ.)

I was really surprised and pleased to see the Wavelet measured here. While I don't think the story of most audio components ends with measurements, I very much appreciate what is done by @amirm and others who post measurements. For me, they rule a lot of gear OUT and some IN. It is really important to hold manufacturers responsible for fulfilling the basics before they spend (and charge) a fortune on gold plating and fancy casework.
 

sam_adams

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Sure. Owner gave me kind permission for the teardown. Here is the full view

Not to deride your mechanical skills @amirm, but both you and the owner are very brave, indeed. The device, on the other hand, is a horror show on the inside. Most unfortunate.
 

steve f

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This product is remarkably disappointing. My first impression was that the unit was broken. Guess not.
 
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That was a quicky Amir, for what should have been a very interesting piece of gear to completely measure. Too bad it appears to be a flawed design or a broken unit. The Wavelet Processor is made by the Swedish firm Böhmer Audio. Considering that Legacy sells this unit as a DAC, DSP crossover and room correction combo for their Master Collection of high end active speakers, they must sound foul with this thing feeding them. That didn't stop The Absolute Sound from giving them their 2022 Editor's Choice award. :rolleyes:
I’ve heard a few of the Legacy speakers running on this (albeit at audio shows, so not perfect environments when it comes to ambient noise levels) and I thought their Aeris and Valor sounded amazing.

Gayle Sanders Eikon Audio also uses the same device (rebranded I believe) for their active Image One speaker system, also super impressive when I heard it.

That‘s not to say that all of those couldn’t sound better if more attention was paid to the design of the processor, but active crossovers and room correction can give something a big leg up even if the SINAD and linearity aren’t state of the art.
 

Mike-48

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Well not too different from Dirac approach as Dirac filters are also generated by Dirac servers but at least the end user has access to it but if Dirac servers are down or you don’t have internet access, you can’t run Dirac…
Thanks for clarifying that. Last time I used Dirac, there was connectivity trouble, and as you say, I couldn't run Dirac until it was resolved. I imagined the connection was only for authorizing the user. Now I know better.

(P.S. I am enjoying the Matrix mini-i Pro 3.)
 

Ron Texas

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Thank you @amirm for your exhaustive evaluation of this totally messed up, expensive box of wires. The manufacturer must he deaf to feedback about the usability issues. Not everyone has an AP analyzer, but everybody has to set up their gear.
 

enricoclaudio

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Thanks for clarifying that. Last time I used Dirac, there was connectivity trouble, and as you say, I couldn't run Dirac until it was resolved. I imagined the connection was only for authorizing the user. Now I know better.

(P.S. I am enjoying the Matrix mini-i Pro 3.)
Glad you are enjoying the mini-i Pro 3 ;) I'm planning on getting the new MA Element M2 by end of the year :)
 
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