Amp for Apogee Stage's

Morbius, Like you, I base my audio decisions on what I hear at live performances. My Scintillas are very close to seconding my own piano.

I have found there are a number of paths open to approximating the live event. For instance, SET systems can be convincing. TacT is effective too. So far, in my experience, no path leads from solid state. Perhaps I just haven't heard the right one.

The fact is, PWM modules are much faster, and more efficient than transistors. They can retrieve faint signals that are smeared over by solid state. H2O breathes life-likeness into the music, given the right speakers. The Stage is the right speaker.

Murahman1,

Even the live performance may not be the ultimate.

When you attend a live event, you're not listening to the
artist play - you are listening to the artist playing as
reproduced by the venue's sound system.

If you are listening to an orchestra - that's one thing - a
big orchestra doesn't need any help making sound.

But if you are listening to an artist in anything but the
smallest club - where you can hear them acoustically - then
you are listening to someone's sound system.

Comparing your own piano to piano played on your own
speakers in the same room would be interesting. If you
can get a real good recording of your actual piano in your
own room - and then have the opportunity to play back that
recording in the same room - that would tell you a lot.

The Scintillas are excellent - a case of going "all out" in
the design - without regard to certain practical limits -
like the impedance - which is why they end up at 1 ohm.

The Stages are excellent too. The only speakers that I have
actually heard that are as "real" sounding as the Stages,
are some very expensive Wilsons [ X-2 and Maxx-2 ]. The
Stages were a lot less money - so they are an excellent
value. Too bad Apogee went out of business.

Dr. Gregory Greenman

Morbius,

The Apogee may be coming back, under a new banner. Analysis Audio has made a good go at it. Word is Graz, of Down Under, is busy creating a new line of ribbon speakers.

BTW, My daughter plays viola, my son the bugle, my wife, the piano. We've been personally involved, as a family, in large and small acoustic venues for many years.

That is why I had to have the Scintilla. In a smaller room, I would opt for the Stage.

I have had Stages for fifteen years and have tried most of the variations. I think the arc welding amp thing got started because Jason Bloom was friends with the makers of Krell, and these were some of the first amps that sounded decent with Apogees. He tended to recommend them without reservation, even when I asked him personally at a demo, but he conceded that tube amps could do fine.
Right brained (i.e. scieintific) audiophiles like the arc welders because they measure well. The systems I have heard with arc welders are either tizzy, glaring, or sound like laser beams are sawing off the top of your head. The right brainers would call this "accurate."
I would stick with good quality 200w tube amps with the Stages, or with the current crop of "digital" amps such as Bel Canto Evo or the H2O types. The digital amps seem to preserve and project spatial information better than traditional solid state types.
If you really want your Stages to sound optimal, you need to upgrade the inferior and bright sounding internal crossover with a North Creek alternative or an external upgraded passive crossover.

Cjfrbw,

I think the "alliance" between Apogee and Krell goes back to
the days when Apogee was producing speakers like the Scintilla
and the "Full Range" which had very low impedances.

The Krells were practically the only amps around that could
drive these low impedances without going unstable. [ There's
a point a which an amp turns into an oscillator if the load
impedance is low enough. ]

That was Dan D'Agostino's and Krell's original claim to
fame - they were about the only thing around that could
drive Apogees without blowing up.

However, for many years Apogee recommended Classe' amps
instead of Krells. Although the Krells did an excellent
job of driving Apogees, and Apogee went to Krell for the
built-in amp of their "statement" product - the Grands;
they probably wanted to offer their clientele a more cost
effective solution. Classe' amps did a very good job for
less money than the Krells - although Classe' amps were
not cheap by any measure.

Measuring well is a necessary - but not sufficient
condition for accuracy. If something measures well, that
doesn't mean the system is accurate.

However, if the waveform presented at the speakers input
terminals doesn't measure well because the amp can't keep
up with the current demands of the speaker - then there's
no way that can be accurate - no matter how it sounds.

It may sound nice to some - the attacks and edges of the
music being rolled off, which some like the sound of; but
it can't be called accurate.

I'll look into the North Creek crossovers.

Dr. Gregory Greenman
Physicist