The Peak Consult Dragon Legacy Loudspeakers
By Roy Gregory
When we write Installation Notes it is for a number of reasons: in some case, it’s because a product demands a particular approach, particular care or particular tools and handling. In other cases it is because the whole procedure is novel or just plain different. Sometimes it simply reflects the impression that a product left on us – because it was especially demanding, especially easy or just especially well thought through. But in each and every case, the purpose of the piece goes beyond pointing out possible shortcuts or risks to potential owners. In many cases, the tools and techniques, the lessons and observations have wider, more general applications. In this case in particular, the article is both about the Peak Consult Dragon Legacy as a product – and the challenge presented by transporting, installing and optimising any single piece speaker this big, this heavy and this ambitious. But it’s also about the steep learning curve a product like this imposes on its manufacturer.
At 225kg each, there’s no escaping the fact that the Dragon Legacy is going to present a physical challenge – a challenge only surpassed by even bigger single cabinet speakers like its predecessor, the Dragon Legend – a behemoth that weighs in at almost 400Kgs each! Such a challenge demands a carefully considered response to each physical and mechanical issue it presents. The problem is that sometimes those issues only emerge after the fact, once the speaker is already released into the wild.
This story starts – like every other installation – with the arrival of the speakers, dropped off by a large truck equipped with a tail lift. A nicely constructed, heavy-duty plywood crate – one that doesn’t embed splinters in any passing naked flesh – protects each speaker in transit. Although the crates arrived strapped to a double height pallet, each one is equipped with six large diameter, rubber wheeled casters. With a little help from the driver, I was able to free the crates from their pallet and, once stood in the road on their own wheels, I was able to move them into the un/loading area outside the main listening room single-handed. Okay, so I have the benefit of roll-in access, but it does indicate that in this case the crates and casters are actually fit for purpose: believe me – it ain’t necessarily so!
Once inside, I was even able to remove the top from each crate and unwrap the polythene cocoon sufficiently to access the base of the speaker. A third, smaller crate contained the feet and outriggers, apparently repurposed from the smaller models in the range – which helps explain the six-footed arrangement. As always, the pictures are worth (at least) a thousand words and demonstrate clearly the way in which Peak has been able to use three out-rigger beams to support the six feet in an unusual configuration you’d never dream was in place when viewed from above. However, as neat a solution as this might be from a manufacturing perspective, as we shall see, it’s not without its issues.
