Like any speaker that is this dimensionally capable, they demand precise alignment and symmetry relative to the listening position. That presents its own set up challenge in that you are effectively manoeuvring an adjustable isosceles (almost equilateral) triangle within the confines of the room, balancing listening distance and placement to achieve maximum spatial accuracy combined with the best possible bass. In other words, shunting one speaker fore and aft a little isn’t going to cut it – at least not if you want to realise the performance these speakers are actually capable of. Good tools and careful measurement are your friends here, but the really fine-tuning is going to come down to the height of each speaker off of the floor and a balance of pitch and yaw – essentially a diagonal shift across the speaker, achieved by adjusting diagonally opposite feet. Just be warned: by the time you get down to the short strokes, with this much bandwidth in play, tiny, tiny adjustments are going to produce readily audible results.
An imposing presence…
In one sense at least, the Dragon Legacy lives up to its name. Its musical weight, scale and density make recordings an almost physical presence in the room. Orchestral crescendos swell convincingly, bristling with impact and power – and post-GOT who can’t relate to getting up close and personal with a Dragon? This is a speaker that does BIG with real attitude and confidence. But what makes it even more impressive is that it does small with equal presence, stability and considerable poise and manages to transit effortlessly between the two. In this case, first impressions count and they’re not wrong. This is a very easy speaker to listen to, an easy speaker to enjoy and a very easy speaker to like.
I’ve recently been re-visiting the Sayaka Shoji recording of the Sibelius Violin Concerto (with the incomparable Yuri Temirkanov and his St. Petersburg Philharmonic – DGG SHM-CD UCCG 1811). It’s a challenging piece and a challenging recording that finds out too many systems, but the Dragon Legacies demonstrate exactly how it should be done, from the incisive bowing of the soloist, through to the superb direction and ensemble playing of the orchestra. It’s an utterly convincing presentation of a powerful and confident performance – but it’s also a window onto what makes the Peak speakers so distinctive and special.
Playing live, Shoji is a fascinating soloist, her diminutive stature totally at odds with the focus, power and sheer substance she generates from her instrument, clamped stationary beneath her chin. It’s a quality that few recordings can fully capture, few systems fully reproduce – but the Dragon Legacies are the exception to that rule. Not only does the solo instrument appear solid and surprisingly stable in space (just as she plays live) but the space that’s a constant around and behind it, the layers of orchestral instruments, have a natural sense of depth, scale and perspective. The performance captures the distinctive atmosphere of the piece and performance perfectly, the orchestra underpinning and responding to the solo part with such gusto that the crescendos explode with body and colour. It’s easy to conclude that this body, weight and presence comes at the expense of some texture and tension, the air and vibrant anticipation that brings a performance to life. But if the performance is sounding a little smooth and rounded it’s almost certainly because you are sitting too far back. At least in my room, these speakers demand a slightly closer seating position than many others – closer to equidistance between listener and speakers. Move forward (in this case around 30cm/12”) and you are rewarded with an increase in focus, transparency and immediacy, instrumental texture, micro-dynamic discrimination and a soundstage that doesn’t just open out in front of you, but reaches out to envelop you. Or, to put it more simply, the performance comes to life, vivid, full of energy, intent and expressive impact.
Size matters…
Once you get to grips with the Dragon Legacy’s demands you realise that they open up a whole world of musical opportunity. As I’ve already suggested, these speakers are capable of reproducing a remarkable sense of scale, presence and dimensionality. But unlike a lot of speakers that ‘do imaging’ this is no party trick, a ‘lens’ or ‘filter’ that imparts the same scale and spread to each and every recording. The Dragon Legacy is a shape shifter, with each recording and, in some cases, each track presented with its own, distinctive spatial characteristics and identity. The Shoji recording hints at this, with its instrumental presence and layering, natural perspective and sense of a consistent acoustic volume, presented at the expense of clearly defined boundaries and ceiling. But, there’s no missing the location of instruments, the consistency of their single, contiguous acoustic environment, or the additional power this lends to the superb ensemble playing. Incidental noises are incredibly natural, buried in the orchestra, fixed in depth and height. The sheer presence and energy definitely make this a row E or F experience, rather than M or N. Which is fine by me – just don’t expect the same seat and perspective from every recording.
