Loudspeaker of the Year 2019

English translation

Speaker | Floor standing speakers

Refined Transformation

The SA Legend 60 lives three lives in one: a passive, an active and one which it abandons after another wireless transformation. A fairy tale?

TEST

FLOOR STANDING SPEAKERS

S.A. LEGEND 60 SILVERBACK WITH SYSTEM AUDIO STEREO HUB 9000 €

The legend, which the author of the following lines aims to tell, offers the qualities of a serialised novel. However, as with literature, you can enter directly in the third episode with System Audio. In the case of Legend 60 Silverback you don’t lose track, but the wire. At a total price of 9000 €, the Danish producer offers you a pair of wireless speakers with a stereo hub which collect all connections.

You can do it as we do to save time. But you can also experience the SA Legend from the beginning and take part in all the facets of both protagonists’ hero’s journeys. Even though it takes longer, it makes the start easier. The one who wishes to experience the myth from the beginning only has to invest 6000 € for both of the passive Legends. You get a three-way bass reflex speaker in the shape of slender pillars, reaching 1,2 metre from the floor. In this case, both boxes set themselves apart from the competition by their remarkable, relatively living room-friendly design. However, the technology stays to the conventional side. The sleek shape is possible because System Audio goes for a series of smaller membranes rather than an XXL bass.

In the second episode, the legend lives a marvellous transformation: The passive box turns into a powerful, active speaker, which autonomously and emancipated from the amplifier goes its own way. Here, the owner or trusted dealer must remove the back-mounted crossover. In its place goes an active module with four power amps in the well-crafted quality case. The total performance of this power package is impressively 560 W per speaker. Thereby, even the passive crossover parts disappear from the signal path. In the DSP doesn’t only the distribution of the individual frequency range take place; the constructors also make use of the digital equalizer’s possibilities. This makes it possible for the comparatively delicate speakers to penetrate in depths, which would otherwise be off-limits for other speakers of its kind.

Danes don’t lie

With the active Legend 60 Silverback, System Audio promises a spectacular 17 Hz as the minimum frequency range. You don’t have to be an expert in literature to keep in mind that one or another exaggeration tend to have crept into the traditions of mythical stories. However, as it was said in the outstanding commercial by another speaker designer from the land of the Vikings: Danes don’t lie. And true enough: 17 Hz is, in fact, an understatement. The -6- dB point of the SA Legend was in our laboratory test at an unbelievable 11 Hz! More strictly rated, there are still legendary 21 Hz at -3 dB. If a good bass makes you smile, and you also happen to have 8000 Euro to spare, you may be tempted to depart from the story at this stage and skip the rise from humble conditions to superhero. Most stories would now already have reached their happy ending, free after the saying: “And if they didn’t die, they are still shaking today.” But this legend is so long and multifaceted that even Homer, the narrator of the Odyssey, would be astonished.

In the third and last episode, a kind of meta-level enters the game. After the SA Legend with the blessings of active digital technology hasn’t conquered the boundaries of physics but pushed them deep down in the frequency basement, invisible forces now enter the game. As with Odysseus and other great sailors, the new adventure of SA Legend sets sails with the command: “Cast off!” In the third and highest configuration level, a new friend of our heroes enters the game to free them from the slavery of annoying speaker cables (Supporters of the cable myth has to stay strong now). This new ally may not make much of itself, but it offers remarkable qualities: For 1000 € the distribution of Robert Ross delivers a wireless hub with remote control. This little helper deserves to be judged, not on its looks, but its capacities. The Blackbox transforms the SA Legend into a manifold DLNA compatible HiRes-Wireless Speaker with 24 Bit/192 kHz. Its unadorned plastic case, making it look more like an internet router, has no monetary reasons, but technical: Inside are antennas whose signals shouldn’t be shielded by a beautiful metal case. This accessory is already included in our 9000 € set. Luckily, the SA Legend also includes a sort of short story which makes it understandable how to get the white monsters working. If you just connect the individual components with a power outlet and turns them on, you will only get as far as the victims of the Minotaur’s labyrinth. The guide depicts how to initialise the remote control and how to connect the two speakers with the Stereo Hub and also how to let them know for which channels they are responsible. Currently, stereo is the limit, but soon, wireless surround operations should also be possible.

Before you can go the nice part, you have to download the Google Home app for iOS or Android on your smartphone and let yourself be guided by their dialogue through the installation, which, just like with Chromecast, can’t be done without a Google registration in case you don’t already have an account. After this step, you can also as Apple user go to your favourite device to play songs on your iPhone over the speakers.

The Hub’s HDMI connection did not, as hoped, work well with a Blu-Ray player. It is made for flat screens that offer an input with an audio return channel (ARC). For digital audio sources, there is a coaxial S/PDIF input. The USB-A connection stays reserved for playing updates from a memory stick. There is, however, a USB-B connection to use the Hub as DAC for computers.

Stable wireless transmission

Even though some unexpected transformations came about when approaching the SA Legend 60 Silverback, we were able to face the showdown calmly. The wireless transmission functioned stably and almost bewitched us like the Sirens of the Odyssey. The Scandinavian boxes enthuse with their lovely voices – to stick with the metaphor. They painted in saturated, warm tones that seemed authentic. The transmission of overtones was as sparkling and detailed as the descriptions of an epos. Still, the transmission lacked any depth. Angled to the listening position, an excellent focus presented itself with a stable, plastic sound image. The consistent performance was as pleasant as prose but had a liveliness and appeal to them which made you get carried away. No doubt: The legend is real.  They also quivered when the offered recordings possessed the appropriate depth. They vibrate, when the played recordings offer the appropriate depth. What the graceful sound statues has to offer of bass foundation and fullness is worth passing on to later generations through this text. However, you should not bring the upper levels of the volume indicator on the remote control to light up, because otherwise the limiter noticeably brakes the already not exactly dammed-dry bass.

RESULT
Clearly, I know of one or two wireless speakers who are easy to handle. But I don’t know of any comparable combination of flexibility and sound quality. I especially like the possibility to begind with the passive version of the Legend 60 and thereafter moving onwards into the legendary land of wireless.  A never-ending story.

Picture texts

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INTOXICATED BY DEPTS: Thanks to an active module and digital equalizer the SA Legend 60 Silverback creates a profound bass from the 20 cm narrow case.

SIGN OF LIGHT: The remote control

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GUIDE CULTURE: The extremely light and coated silk domes offer an acoustic DXT lens. The wave guide optimises the radiation characteristics.

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TIMELESS BEAUTY: The case of the SA Legend 60 convinces with its high-quality craftsmanship and details such as the shadow joint behind the baffle board.

NEXT-LEVEL: The electrical modules of the SA Legend 60 Silverback are already made ready for the use of 7.1 surround systems. However, our combination still came with the already available stereo hub.

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Measuring lab

With the Legend 60, System Audio relies on a massive low-bass equalization that tickles a record-breaking -3-d-B point of 21 Hz from the fairly small chassis. The flip side of the tuning is the low maximum volume of the low bass, which is just 83 dB per box and meter. In the rest of the frequency range, the speaker easily delivers more than 100 dB of acoustic pressure, as the distortion diagram shows.