Legacy 20/20 and Tubes

I'm not trying to start trouble or severely piss anyone off here, but I'd like to add something that I didn't include in my post from 1/14/05.

I had the Focus 20/20's for two weeks while my dealer was out of town at a show. I found them so offensive and fatiging that I pulled them out after only a few days and they sat in my office "lookin' pretty" for the remainder of there tour here in my home.
Even my girlfriend (who is not into this like I am) said, "get them F'ing things outta here!"

I promise, I'm not bashing, just posting my observations.

I had a pair of 20/20's in my home for a two week demo in June of '04. I ran them with an ARC sp16l pre, Manley-Neo Classic 250 tube mono's on the top and an Aragon 8008bb on the bottom, I won't bother listing all the gear. I did not run them with either the Manley's or the Aragon solo. After one week, I could stand it no more! I yanked them out and put my PSB Stratus Gold's back into service. My system is much different now, but I feel compelled to chime in here. I just HAD to demo these speaks after the rave review in Stereophile. Sean is right on the money and I am not a Legacy basher. They were pretty and seemed to be well built, but pretty doesn't always sound good. And from a functional standpoint, I didn't care for the layout of the binding posts or the posts themselves, somethiing I feel is important on a 6k+ speaker. But these speakers were so shrill and fatiguing that after 20 minutes, my ears were cooked, everytime.
And it wasn't just me, two other friends felt the same way.

I responded to this thread because I was running an ARC SP16L and Manley 250 monoblocks(on the top), both tubed products. I felt this was a proper response to this thread.

I wasn't bashing Legacy in any way, shape or form.
I have no grudge against them or past experience with their products.

My findings were that these speakers were extremly harsh and fatiguing with good tube gear running the upper freq's.
But, in all fairness, I didn't run them with just the Manley's or just the Aragon. Perhaps doing so would have yielded different results.

Although, I have used this bi-amped setup with other speaks with much better results.

I have read many posts' by Sean and appreciate his input.
He is obviously very experienced and knowledgable in the
high-end audio arena. One shouldn't dismiss a posting because
he/she doesn't agree with the content. I have learned not to take offense
when someone doesn't happen to like a piece of gear that I may own and love.
Audio is very subjective by nature given the multitude of variables,
e.g., gear synergy, room, power, cables, ears, etc.

But on the subject of the 20/20's, the one common thread that I have read/heard over and over from experienced audiophiles is, TOO MANY DRIVERS. Another common thread amongst audio folk is,
many mag's, especially Stereophile (to which I subscribe) seems to love everything they review.
Often times, there is a piece of gear that I am interested in, but don't have a dealer in my area and have to rely on print and word of mouth. I for one, can find it very difficult to make audio decisions when everything in the mag's is great.

To reiterate, when I read the rave review in Sphile on the 20/20, I said, "I gotta have 'em"!
Thank goodness I had a dealer in my area that (reluctantly) let me do an in home demo for two weeks with the 20/20. Which allowed me to find out that I didn't like them, without spending/losing a lot of my hard earned cash. I would have been absolutely livid had I bought a pair of these just based on that review.

More to the point: I have found that I can put more credence behind what I read in the forum section here than most of the mag's in regards to a particular piece. I have made many good decisions doing my "homework" here.

Audiogon is an invaluable tool to learn from, as are many who post here,
you just gotta learn how to discern who is "blowing smoke" and who is the "real McCoy".