With the speakers’ feet installed, it was time to roll them into the listening room and get them upright. Given their substantial weight, this was one aspect of the operation that definitely exceeds single-handed completion! Enter the help of two visitors from a rival manufacturer, who graciously assisted the process. With the base of the crate wheeled as close to the final placement as possible, slide the speaker (which is lying on its back) as close to the end of the supporting ‘trolley’ on which it’s resting. That way, when it get’s tilted upright, it won’t slide down and impact the floor, with potentially damaging consequences to carpet, floor or speaker/feet equally. Fortunately, Peak Consult have thought this through and, not only does the speaker slide easily on the thick foam layer on which it rests, the foam between the speaker terminals and the end of the crate’s base has been cut away, allowing complete freedom of movement. The terminals can’t lock against the packing foam preventing movement or suffering decapitation as a result. Even so, it’s a three-man job, with one anchoring the base of the crate and two tilting it to the vertical position.
Normally, once a speaker is upright, my wooden floor makes it easy to manoeuvre: not so the Peaks. The number of feet and the small, flat, contact patch of each one made pushing or pulling the speaker any distance a difficult proposition with considerable risk of marking the floor. Time to fetch the Teflon sliders! I used a set of small Teflon discs that I ‘stole’ from YG at a show. 67mm in diameter with a chamfered edge, they are topped with a rubber layer and, normally a hard plastic disc that has a central well for a spike. Remove the disc and the recess is perfect for the Peak’s flat feet – and, as they came from YG, I’ve got six of them! Meanwhile, Peak Consult have been working on a dedicated solution that will fit not just the Dragon Legacy but their other speakers that use the same feet. Eschewing Teflon (as it is so soft that it can pick up grit and thus scrape the surface it is supposed to be protecting) they will shortly have Delrin ‘cups’ that will enclose the bottom half of the conical foot in order to provide both protection and a secure fit. These should prove ideal.
The feet themselves are excellent. Carved from a combination of stainless-steel and ceramic, with holes for a pry-bar and a good flat contact area, they run on substantial 15mm threads that make for serious stability. No wobbling here before you lock them down.
The Dragon Legacy, with their tall, D’Appolito baffle layout and wide bandwidth are always going to be super critical of their height off of the floor and their precise attitude (rake angle and azimuth). They have that in common with a lot of other big, box speakers, but the better the speaker, the more integrated and musically coherent it is, the more critical those adjustments will be – and this is an extremely good loudspeaker indeed.
