Best Amp to drive my Apogee Stages?

The H2O 100 costs $2k. It will run the Stage with all the control a high power amp gives it. You can get all the tube warmth, and depth separation by choosing another component with tubes. I just have tubes in my CD player, and that is what determines the sound.

www.iceh2oaudio.com/images/H20...

I love the sound of my (old but revised) Threshold S/300 on my Apogees.

Rrog: My guess is that the Manely should mate well with the Stage.

I am sorry I do not recall our conversation. Apologies. Drop me an email if you have any specific question. With regard to building speakers, I did not build any per se but I moded several Apogees. Two noteworthy efforts are the "Centaur-Fullrange" which combine the Fullrange woofer with Centaur-Major mid/tw ribbon to make a "new" speaker. This remains my main speaker even though these days I am listening to the original Fullrange.

The second project, which shows my love for the Stage, was to create a "butterfly", that is stacked Stages. Each side contains two Stages with the top one upside down such that the Mid/high tweeters of the two Stages are aligned vertically. That project required some more efforts and crossover mod and I abandoned the idea as the bass was not better than that of the Fullrange. I might try it again though when my mod bug starts biting me again.

Gallant_diva:
I have never heard anything finer than the Apogee Fullrange. Why play with stages when you have the REAL thing?

-LIL

Good comment, Lil. I love to engage in such discussions. I own two Fullranges and I agree that it is one of finest speakers ever made. It has got everything: might, power, authority, finesse, romance, subtlety, you name it. However, I have improved it further and I know I am speaking for myself and for my taste.However, the Stage has something that none of the other Apogees have, and that is some magic in the midrange which gives a greater feeling of the singer or instrument being present there. One reason for that could be the Mylar backed ribbon instead of the regular kapton or pure ribbon (but shadowed by transformers). Another reason is the crossover. These factors combined add something into the Stage that is hard to describe in words. Call it audio chemistry :) I never had that feeling with the Diva or other Apogees - certain scintillas come very close though. Now keep in mind that the Fullrange in contrast has its own magic and does not seem to miss anything, and the differences are rather minuet. But if I am listening to vocals only I do not want to stop if it is coming from the Stage.