Installation Notes –

With the speakers in their initial placement, optimized for distance to front and side-walls, it’s time to get serious about height and orientation. Which brings us to the second major challenge: try finding a reference for angular attitude on this speaker! Just getting it level is difficult enough – for two reasons: it has zero horizontal surfaces (except the base and that sits so close to the floor that you can’t get most levels underneath it); it is clad in strips of wood, which means that getting any sort of consistent reading off any surface is almost impossible. Even standing a narrow metal strip across the outriggers and sitting the level on that proved way too variable, due to flexibility in the outriggers themselves. Inherited from the smaller speakers, these need to be beefed up significantly, which fortunately, is both easy to do and already in hand. However, that doesn’t help solve the problem of finding a reference level. The solution? Taping a narrow MDF board across the bottom of the speaker. Is it absolutely level? No. But is it stable and consistent – ie. a reference? Absolutely. As an indicator of relative movement it’s fine – but you are still going to have to figure out how to zero out the speaker to start with. I used some extremely small digital levels that are not my most accurate, but do at least get under the speaker to take a read off of the base-board. The difference between the base and the MDF platform is consistent, at 0.1 degrees front to back and 0.2 degrees laterally, but as I said, as an indicator of relative angular change, that’s fine.

The two digital levels that I normally rely on – and the smaller/shorter one used to ‘zero out’ the Peak speakers.

Why make such a point about the issues in achieving repeatable adjustment with the Dragon Legacy? Because this is a speaker in which height off of the floor and exacting attitude adjustment are so critical to achieving the considerable performance it’s capable of. Fortunately, the design of the feet is a big help in this regard, with their pry-bar holes allowing really precise adjustment. However, I’m less happy with the fact that there are six feet and that the rear four are not equidistant from the speaker’s centre-line. Let me explain…

Using six feet means that, given their layout around the speaker’s base, rake angle adjustments are going to mean adjusting four feet (front or rear pair and the two in the centre of the speaker) simultaneously. Throw in the flexibility in the outriggers and the chances of getting a predictable result with all six feet equally weighted is going to be pretty slim. Side to side azimuth adjustment is even more complex, look from the front of the speaker and you’ll see that the front feet are nestled close together, the centre feet are wider and the rear pair, wider still. That means an accurate azimuth adjustment that also keeps all six feet in equal contact is going to mean precise adjustment of five feet! Good luck with that!!