Legacy Wavelet II
 

I just finished reading a review of Legacy’s Valor speakers in The Absolute Sound (January 2022). It was a glowing review as usual for these $86k speakers. I own the Aeris speakers with the Wavelet and I absolutely love them. This review was the first where they mentioned the new Wavelet II. I’m curious if anyone has had any experience with this new Wavelet? I don’t see it on Legacy’s website yet. The review states the unit can be used on any of Legacy’s speakers and can be custom programmed to work on most other speakers.

Calling SCAudiophile!

I, along with a couple other owners (1 Valor, 1 V speakers) received one of the units each. The sonic improvements overall are a big jump due
to updates of the DAC (now 24/192 for analog in and 32/384 for compatible digital inputs, and the DSP section (upgrade from 56-bit to 64-bit!)
and over enhanced software layers for Room Correction and Omnio functionality add up to a MAJOR platform upgrade and sonic upgrade.

Others may have received it net new or had theirs upgraded in the last month; I only know the 3 owners (including myself) mentioned above directly.

Legacy has not updated the web and will do so hopefully soon. There is mention of rolling it out 'officially' at the Florida Audio Expo so definitely no
later than that.

I would write or give them a call about v2 upgrade path for V1 owners and also net new units.

Happy to talk and share what I've heard as well after the holidays.

Merry Christmas!

While this air is a little too thin for my breath, i am a huge fan of Legacy speakers.
Agree with SCA, give a call; great customer service.

FWIW, Audio Classics has a pair of custom made beauties without amplification that are crazy large and crazy sounding with Mc 901's.

I just ordered a Wavelet II. It should be ready in a month or 2. SCaudiophile listed the updates. Can’t wait!

Congratulations Rick,..based upon what I'm hearing here, you will be very happy!

Mark I’m using a Mcintosh 452 with my Aeris speakers. I see you are running Legacy amps. Would I benefit swapping the Mc for a Legacy Audio i·V2 Dual Mono Amplifier (Stereo) ? Both amps are probably overkill right?

Rick, the McIntosh 452 like so many of their amps is a great amp and a quiet beast,...delivers music with quiet confidence all the time and when needed can really open up the floodgates as it were in terms of filling a room.

Depending upon point of view a amp with that much capacity and full range potential is overkill however from that same point of view, so is the Legacy i.V2!!! (Ultra by default build spec I believe, one board fully dedicated per channel). Many people forget that all that great power on reserve is not only about playing at scale / high SPLs; it's also about control and ability to handle the dynamics of minute, soft passages.

Either amp is a great match for the top (mids and treble sections) of the AERIS speakers (assuming you have them wiring with internal amps for the bass and sub-bass which is the default. When I had mine, I drove them first with an Edge NL 12.1, then a Maker Audio NL14 and later and until I sold them, an Esoteric A-02; all great amps and definitely full-range beasts capable of driving nearly any speaker full range.

The only advantage you MAY hear if you were to give the i.V2 (Ultra by default) a try is the good of having the same exact sonic family profile, speed, damping factor, etc. on the mids and trebles as you do on the bottom half of the AERIS. To me that is worth investigating however if you can do so in a way that doesn't have you getting rid of the 452 first, that would be the way I'd recommend.

As an aside, McIntosh amps have a long history and reputation for pairing extremely well with all Legacy speakers back to the original Focus and earlier and later models.

I don't remember where you are located however you are welcome to come check out the sonic personality of the i.V4 Ultra. I've had good friends who own Accuphase monoblocks, D'Agostino, Pathos amps and i-amps, Pass Labs X250.8's , Primaluna, Ayon, Lampi, various other tube-amps, here and they have all said they find what the i.V4 Ultra puts out to be very unlike the classic characterizations of Class D amplifications and a big surprise. They also use words like excellent, extremely musical, detailed, organic, etc...

Now, my personal answer is this; for many years I swore I would NEVER have so-called Class D "digital amplification" (ironic as Class D amps are analog just like other topologies) in my system going back 10-15 years.

I've learned to never say "never" in this hobby; today I have nothing but
Class D here, and a whole lot of it at that internal to the VALOR and external.
The reason initially cost and space and keeping a complex setup from being
even bigger and more so.

Today, all that Class D amplification is staying because of how amazing t sounds and the list of much more expensive amps I've heard that don't beat it sonically (to my ears) when the i.V4 Ultra is powered and cabled well. There are quite a few SOTA amps that do but they are in the $50K-$100K categories for 2-ch stereo or 2 monos, and I'd need 4-ch (yikes).

Hope that helps....

You hit the nail on the head, I’m happy with the sound of the 452 but also curious about the Legacy amps. I’m guessing one could expect more detail with a good digital amp. I’ve been timid about components that reveal more detail because I was afraid the music would be presented in a way that’s fatiguing or too sterile. So far, Ive been wrong about this. When I moved to a good linear power supply for the wavelet, my first impression was “too clean” but my impression changed, or maybe the power supply did some breaking in, or I just got used to it. Anyway I now love the sound. The next move was to a better Dac and again worried more detail would be too clean and again I was wrong. My amp and speakers really do make some beautiful midrange but if I get the opportunity to compare another amp in the system I’ll probably do so just to feel what signature the Mc is adding.

The Legacy amps will pass through exactly what they are sent and do not seem so far to color or inject harshness like a few Class D amps still do these days. If there is a bit too much upper end detail/briliance due to the increased resolution, etc...you can also have 1 of 8 different saved contour sets of your own making with the Wavelet to make small tweaks on the to some or all of the many parametricEQ groups. Personally I find a group of settings that covers 95% of all music, and don't mess around too much as there are so many degrees of freedom you could almost drive yourself nuts. "KISS" principle, just enjoy the music :-)