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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?
rgs92
budt3210
19 posts
 
Yes, Apogees are in a class by themselves.I don't own a pair but I heard a set and I never forgot it.Nothing I have heard approaches the transient response of the apogees.
trelja
3,223 posts
 
It is just plain wrong to say that a ribbon is "very long and narrow". A ribbon can be of probably any dimension. The ribbon bass units on an Apogee are ANYTHING but narrow, and in the shorter models, they are not very long (depending on your definition of long) either.

The same holds true of the Infinity EMIM and EMIT drivers, neither being narrow nor long.

The definition of ribbon is simply a reflection of how the driver operates, as Kal alluded to.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Trelja...How do you create a strong magnetic field across the gap of a wide ribbon? Can you please describe how the magnetics of the Apogee are set up.
muralman1
1,527 posts
 
I have always argued my bass panel consists of a softly held zig zaging ribbon. It's a bit more complicated than that. Large bar magnets are densely arranged in horizontal rows, and are attached to a metal grid just behind the Mylar/aluminum ribbons.
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
Eldartford...from the Apogee forum regarding the Apogee magnet layout:

"Apogee bass panels are single-ended...(Magnets on one side only) As the panel moves backward toward the magnets,
the magnetic field gets stronger. As the panel moves away from the magnets - the magnetic field gets weaker. Therefore, there is an asymmetry to the reproduction of the compression waves vs. the rarefactions.

If the panels had TWO sets of magnets; one in front and one in back - then there would be
no asymmetry. As the panel moved away from the back magnets - it would be moving closer to the front magnets and visa-versa. There would be no asymmetry in the production of the compression waves vs. the rarefactions."

"The classic or "true" ribbon like the Apogee MRTs is "double-ended". There are magnets
on both sides - left and right - of the MRT and as the ribbon moves forward and backwards
there is no asymmetry in the magnetic field that the ribbon experiences.

In essence, the MRT ribbons look / work the same if you turned them around front to back.
Thats not the case with a single-ended driver like the Apogee woofers. The compression /
rarefaction asymmetry changes if you flip them around"

"the trapezoidal shape is for control of resonances or vibration "modes"
Because of the shape - the width of the ribbon is not constant with height.
Therefore, the resonant frequency is not constant with height. So resonances are "spread out".

Dave
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