In the spring of 2007 our director of research and development, Bill Dudleston, was given the challenge of designing a new speaker system for the largest recording company in the world, Universal Music Group. ore importantly, it would be utilized by the legendary producer/CEO/Chairman, Antonio “L.A.” Reid.
The playback system was given the arduous task of covering the 40 seat Manhattan conference room, providing uniquely good imaging for all listeners, yet serving up club-like SPLs.
After months of modeling, Bill and his team of engineers came up a system that could image like Whisper and Helix but provide unprecedented impact in a mastering quality monitor. With the assistance of UMG’s Dave Soto and Legacy east coast representative, John Niski, the system was installed on June 23. Driven by a dozen McIntosh monoblocs with four channels of Crown amplification on the subs, the system featured 16 individual DSP speaker cells, stacked 4 cells high to form four individual towers.
After a shoot-out factoring several of the top professional and home audio speaker manufacturers, Legacy walked away the winner.
Following careful evaluation, a glowing L.A. Reid congratulated Bill and staff “I absolutely love them. …You have an incredible talent. I think you should name these speakers after me… you can call them the A.R. M-02s!’
These speakers have found their home among Legacy’s Professional Solutions as the doubleHelix and doubleHelix subwoofer.