Attention all Legacy Whisper owners ??

I currently have a pair of Whispers and asked these same questions. Here is what I was told. The woofer has a resistor so it can better function as a rear absorber of rear unwanted bass energy outside of the speaker. The resistor puts a load on the woofer when it absorbs rear waves around the outside of the speaker, allowing it to dynamically "brake" better than if it was otherwise not connected to a resistor. (If you recall, one of the unique attributes of the Legacy Whisper is that it is much less sensitive to room boundary placement than most other speaker designs). As far as the shield on the woofer, this allows the woofer's magnetics to have less electrical interactivity with the inside of speaker's crossover guts (which are in close proximity to this particular woofer's rear side). IMHO these are all great design concepts that were well thought out. Way to go Bill D. !!

I am constantly amazed by what I hear with my Whispers...very pleasantly so. I've had them for several years now and I never get tired of them.

Whispers and the focus 20/20s are the best out there in musical enjoyment!

Except if you own other speakers.

I switch out a pair of speaker about every month. I love trying new speakers. However to this day, the focus have remained in my system since there purchase 2.5 years ago. That means they have beat out aprox. 22-26 other speakers in the $1000-$4000 used range.

The only speakers that I felt were as enjoyable to listen to, were the magnepan 3.6 and maybe the Martin Logan Ascent i set up right, with a nice clean sub. That being said, the bass in the focus is absolutely perfect! Its not to much, its not to little, and it extends deep when you want it to, and doesnt thin out at loud volumes unless powered by a very weak amp.

I have read some of your past posts on the quatro having better bass then the focus. I found this to be interesting as stereophile stated the vandersteen not even to be a full range speaker. The focus goes to the low 20's. I have a svs ultra/2 with a sms-1 and I have always felt I needed to use it somewhat with every other speaker but the Focus. With the Focus I leave the sub off.

I also read your positives on the focus, which is one of the reasons I purchased them 2.5 years ago when looking through the forums for another speaker to try in my home. The Focus blew me away then, and they blow me away today.

Obviously, everyone hears differently. I would highly recommend the Focus 20/20's to anyone, and suggest putting it on there top of the list in the $3000-$4000 used range.