Apogees are in the house

[BobM]

Apogee Calipers, that is.

Old and beat up for sure, but the sound is pretty wonderful. Definitely a restoration project for the cabinets (replace bad wood, foam padding, paint job) and the crossover (replace all parts, probably in an external box). Starting the research on this all now.

A few of the guys were over this weekend to give them a listen in their less than pristene form. They are keepers. The picture below is not my actual speaker, just something from Google images.

[Triode Pete]

They do sound nice & you have the perfect "current" amplifier to drive those crazy low impedance loads... I won't be bringing my monoblocks over for you to try out on those black hole energy consuming speakers...maybe a powercord though and some salt & limes for the tequila!  Enjoy, Bob!

[BobM]

Yeah, the DNA 500 didn't even break a sweat, even though the volume knob on my preamp was at 12:00 or more to reach a normal listening volume.

[rollo]

Hey Bob, great news. The Sprauge caps gotta go as well as the flimsy made Apogee inductors. you think they sound good now which they do the mods will bring them to another level. Enjoy the trip. The Nervosa never ends. I see two 8ga Triode Labs powercords being made right now.

charles

[evan1]

Bob I know your room is kind of small ,how are they set up off the walls ?

[Barry (NJ)]

Nice, enjoy 'em!

[rollo]

  The apogee experts recco 5ft apart  about 3.5 ft off the rear wall with the tweeters on the inside when close to side walls. However the listening distance of 10 to 12 ft may be an issue.
  I'm Bob is trying every configuration known to Mankind. he knows his shit. Have fun trying hope they work for your room.


charles

[richidoo]

Hey Congrats Bob! Nice find.

[tmazz]

 The apogee experts recco 5ft apart  about 3.5 ft off the rear wall with the tweeters on the inside when close to side walls. However the listening distance of 10 to 12 ft may be an issue.
  I'm Bob is trying every configuration known to Mankind. he knows his shit. Have fun trying hope they work for your room.


charles

Might have to flip the setup 90 degrees and put the speakers along the short wall. Of course that would invole the WAF.... 

[BobM]

Actually they are not far different from where my old speakers were. About 4 feet off the back wall. About 5 feet apart (tweeter to tweeter). I'm about 10 feet from them. Some interesting findings so far:

- Toe in crimps the soundstage dramatically. These need to fire straight ahead.
- I get a fairly wide soundstage. Left and right on the couch you can still hear the other speaker pretty well. Of course it is far better in the middle.
- They do like to be played loud, and when loud they have a dynamic I never heard from a Maggie.
- They suck power. Halfway on the volume knob, which would normally be pretty damn loud, is a normal comfortable listening volume. Luckily the McCormack DNA 500 is built for this kind of load.
- I'm talking to the remaining Apogee service guys about tweaks and upgrade ideas and such. There's plenty of research to do before I jump into any soldering and improvements.

[rollo]

Cool. Enjoy them Bob. I believe there is an Apogee user forum somewhere out there.


charles

[Wolfman]

http://www.apogeeacoustics.com/

There's a link to the forum pages on the home page as well.

This is Graeme Keets(AKA:"Graz") site,he bought the rights to the "Apogee" name in '06.

Also: http://www.apogeespeakers.com/
The older but still maintained info site.

Sigh,wish I had enough room to set up my Duetta Sigs,oh well......

Enjoy Bob!!!!!

[Lissnr]

Hey Bob, Besides power cords, (there's this local guy named Pete something...you might want to give a call, he's got some nice stuff) the Ap's are also very revealing of speaker cables which of course, must be bi-wired  for best sound. I've tried several combinations including a pair of the original Symo cable which were considered THE match for them back in their heyday ( I still have then ). I ran them into the mid/tweeters and found them extremely detailed and open, ymmv. I have settled on Harmonic Technology pro 9 and pro 11 series which really flesh out the details nicely but also seem to add a nice richness which the ribbons may sometimes like; depending on your electronics. Overall, I'm glad things are moving along as you continue "buffing out the new diamonds". Stay in touch. G

[BobM]

Yeah, that Pete guy. I think he's Polish, so I'm not sure I can trust his work. 

Oh wait, I'm Polish too. Przepraszam (excuse me)

Dziekuje (thank you)


(ps - Pete and I are neighbors)

[mdconnelly]

BobM, have you got one of Pete's 8awg PCs on your McCormack yet?   I've very eager to hear it!