First of all, Apogee are not planars. They are ribbons. I owned the Scintillas (their 3 way design) many years ago. They were magical at first. However, after living with them for a while, their shortcommings became evident. They did some very impressive things, but did not have the palpability, transparency and the all important dynamic contrasts which makes reproduced music come to life. I found that great dynamic speakers sound the closest to live music.
Is Apogee in a class by itself among planars?
As a former owner of Apogee Stages, after listening to a number of popular planars, I still feel that Apogee produced an uncanny feeling of live music better than anything else IMHO all these years later. Although they weren't the most detailed, didn't have very well defined bass, and didn't have a very holistic soundstage, there was just something undefineable to me that sounded real (even when listening from the another room), along with unsurpassed vocals, that makes me say "There's something about Apogees." Am I hallucinating? If not, how was this achieved?