Postby roger » January 8th, 2016, 8:13 pm
This is my honest review of a unit that has received a lot of hype in the past. The Hybrid Audio Legatia L3/L1pro.
Firstly, for those who do not know me, I am not a fanboy. I am not a loyalist to any brand, and this posting is merely an effort to review a product combo. This will not be a technical review. There will be no extrapolating of technical woofer measurements…it’s just an honest review of sound. Secondly I think my limited experience in sound quality and its associated parameters and IASCA based requirements, over the last couple months give me a measure of confidence in what my experiences are.
I have been using this midrange exclusively since 2013, with the Pro being inserted in 2014 (upgrade from the original L1). For my own selfish reasons I prefer pillar and dash mounted midranges, so all of this is based on that type of configuration. This hands down is the best midrange/tweeter combo I have used to date. I believe the tweeter to be the single best tweeter I have ever installed in my car. Currently they are both mounted in the A pillars in a quasi-active arrangement. The top end of this combo is very smooth and the midrange blends seamlessly with the tweet, so much so that the natural rolloff of the midrange is hardly noticeable. Honestly I have had to do no adjustments on the top end of the L1Pro and have actually had to reduce frequencies at the woofer roll off. My eq is then flat from 12K to 20K. But this may be attributed to the somewhat off axis configuration. Granted that the midrange has its limitations, the timbre and tonality that it brings to the sound of the car is very satisfactory. I recently thought of and began investigating swapping the midrange, but I realized that I did not want to part with what this midrange offers. I researched the possible tradeoffs and decided against it. The only change may be to go the L3SE or the C3x. I cannot say the sound to be warm or full beyond normal, but I can say that it produces a very realistic and “technical” sound. It’s not “OMG this driver is tonal out of the box” it does have to be massaged a bit.. Truth be told sometimes I thought it sounded a bit tinny, flat, thin and hollow. But I realized the problem I made with this driver is that I over eq’d. I have made some adjustments since that has allowed the driver to relax and breathe.
High passed from 200Hz @30db on 50 Studio watts this combo sounds very real, very lifelike. Vocals are pure, instruments are natural and the senses are pleased. While I have reflective issues to still resolve I can confidently say I am very happy with it. Not underestimating the continual process of adjustments to get to where I have them at the moment, I have not adjusted anything for a while. Nuances that were once unnoticed are evident and there is nothing that this combo cannot produce within its crossed frequency range. I appreciate that this review is quite subjective and does contain within it the benefits of some acoustic treatments in the setup environment. Maybe if I were judged today by IASCA, heck, my score may be mediocre, but sheit, there is not getting around the fact that the Hybrid Audio Legatia L3 and L1Pro live up to the hype and deliver as promised. Is this everyone’s cup of tea?..no, but I am certainly liking the taste.
