Legend 5.2 Silverback DS

Why it is renowned

The British magazine Hi-Fi Choice reviewed the Legend 5.2 Silverback and called it a new paradigm, a compact speaker with deep, powerful bass that is as coherent and tonally true as the best rivals at several times its price, short of ultimate scale.¹ System Audio quotes a later Hi-Fi Choice verdict on the DS version: that nothing does terrific sound without fuss better.²

The story

The speaker grew from System Audio's passive Legend 5, and Ole Witthøft holds that a good digital speaker starts as a good analogue one.¹ The Silverback range of active models began in 2018.¹ The 5.2 is a two-way with a rear port: a 114 mm long-throw mid/bass driver with a woven carbon-fibre cone and a 25 mm coated silk dome tweeter in a DXT acoustic lens.¹ Each driver has its own converter and Class D amplifier, 150 watts in all, and DSP sets the crossover and keeps the bass from fading at low volume.¹²

The baffle is 29 mm thick and set off from the curved cabinet by a groove inlaid with walnut.¹ The DS version receives its sound wirelessly from the Stereo Hub HT or Surround Hub and measures 19 by 32 by 26.5 cm, in white or black satin.²