PS. BTW, with the right amps (such as the Gryphon Refs) the speaker cables ("shotgun" configuration, made by the Siltech OEM) have a 4 ft. length (de-mystifying the theory of the maximum 2 ft. long cables). Now, to understand the capability of the Gryphon dual monos, I have to emphasize that, even at 25% of the bias setting, they are able to drive the 1 Ohm Scinnes, in a satisfactory manner (better anyway than a pair of Bryston would be capable of; I've hd Bryston 7b's, before the Gryphon). Of course, I'm usng them at 100% bias setting. The only drawback with the Gryphon is the extra $100 extra burden on the power bill, monthly!...:)
Apogee Scintilla Power
I know this is an old topic but here in 2019 has anyone come across any “new” ideas for driving Scintilla 1 ohm’s? Just looking for some options. The obvious ones i know/heard of are old Krell, H2O, Lamm (big money) and some pretty wild european amps? I currently have a pair of Sunfire 300’s (with Scintilla mod) that actually sound pretty good and it is amazing what Bob Carver achieved here but looking for the next step. Thanks for any ideas. No need telling me to sell my Scintilla’s.....:). I am all in and really do like the Apogee stuff. Maybe its nostalgic or the journey. Thanks very much.
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I don’t have it anymore, but back in the 90’s, I drove my Apogees with a McIntosh MC-2300. It ran them easily I might ad. The Mac was rated safe to a half ohm, if I’m remembering correctly. The only headache were Macs silly speaker screw terminals. But some well made spade lugs took car of that. The 2300 could drive the Scintillas to silly volume. You will be surprised at how good the bass response can be, when driven by a strong amp. |
Several excellent options not previously mentioned: Roger Sanders Magnatech, or his earlier Innersound Electrostatic amplifier or one of the Coda amplifiers. Any of these can dump very very large quantities of very high quality current into your apogees without breaking a sweat, at very (IMHO) reasonable prices. |
westerlmThe Apogee Scintilla are only 79db so you’ll need "at least" 150watt/8ohm to get them going. But they go down to 0.9ohm right through the lower bass and also 1.2ohm around 1-2khz in the upper midrange. http://www.lippaudio.org/old/MySystems/Scintilla/impedance.html So this says, that the amp should come "close" to doubling it’s wattage for each halving of impedance from 8ohms right down to 2ohms. Look at big amps with bi-polar (bjt) output stages. eg Krell KSA250 or similar ect ect ect Anything else "may sound OK" but will be a compromise, especially tubes, and won’t get the best from them. EG: 150w/8ohm 300w/4ohm 600w/2ohm Cheers George |
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