From reputation the Apogee Scintilla full range ribbons resembles a glorious diva, temperamental but difficult to tame, seductive but moody and desirable and expensive. When you get familiar with them some of these reveal as prejudices but an encounter will definitively be exiting.
The moment when the Scintillas played their first tones in my listening room I will never forget. Immediately they intimated me, the music danced through my room. And I was lost listening to the sparkling clear sound. Only after a few weeks listening to them I regained the criticism necessary to be able to give a neutral test report.
Love at first sound
The immediate love for the sound of these speakers at my home came as a kind of surprise to me, none of the public demonstrations of this speaker had convinced me of the qualities of this speaker. Especially this second largest model from Apogee had the reputation of being extremely difficult to drive by any amplifier. This had very clear physical reasons. The quality of every speaker depends on room environment and speaker location in this room, especially dipole speakers are sensitive in this area. For example my own Audio Exclusiv electrostatic speakers have a very thin and cool sound in my listening room. These speakers tend to sound fat and warm in other places. I think it was beneficial that the Scintillas were placed in a room were large dipole speakers had been playing for years. Also the second problem, the requirement for the power amp to supply high currents, had never been a problem when the Outsider Class A Mono-blocks were connected to the Electrostats. The relative low heat level and the ability to adjust itself to the loudspeaker load proved in this point that the Scintilla's are less critical to drive compared with the Audio Exclusiv's. The 1 ohm impedance of the speaker in the mid-high range is a result of the no-compromise approach of driving the ribbons as direct as possible.
A dream came true
Before Apogee speakers arrived on the high end scene there were only ribbon speakers available for tweeters. The legendary designs of Decca, Sequerra and Jordanow are even today considered as the best tweeters available. All these designs have a small aluminium strip hanging in a strong magnetic field. The aluminium has been stiffened by a wave pattern. If a current flows true this ribbon it will undergo a force. Depending on the direction of the current the ribbon will move forwards or backwards. From this point of view there is no difference between a ribbon and a normal cone speaker. But the main advantage of the ribbon is that the membrane and the driver are one single part and that’s a lot lighter in weight compared to normal speakers. There are 2 disadvantages for these ribbons. First reasonable sensitivity levels can only be achieved when very strong magnetic fields are used or the ribbons are very large. This is the main reason that ribbons up to this time only have been used in tweeters. Second the low impedance of the short aluminium ribbon needed a transformer to bring the impedance to amplifier friendly levels.
This was the way things were until Jason Bloom, an art broker and a ambitious high end freak, and his father in law: Leo Spiegel, a former Engineer in the aviation industry, started their company: Apogee. In the beginning also Gary Walker, who left the company was with them. After having tried several times with conventional speaker concepts the Americans believed they only could make a giant leap forward if they constructed a full range ribbon speaker. Leo Spiegel knew from his technological experience in the aircraft industry that it is possible to solve every problem when it is approached without any limitations in budget.
The first problem to produce the speakers was that it required completely new machines and tools. Nothing they needed could be bought. In the new Apogee plant in Massachusetts they created departments for all required steps: the production of wooden frames, film production, the magnets up to the final test. To magnetise the ceramic magnets and to produce the only 12 micrometer thick kapton film required very expensive equipment. This is the main cause for the high prices of the speakers.
Resulting their development Jason and Leo presented in 1983 for the first time "the Apogee" which has pure ribbons in the mid range and tweeters. The Bass driver is no pure ribbon but is an optimised magneto static version. The midrange is not directly driven. The second model, our Scintilla's even have a direct driven midranges. The 135cm long and 4.5 cm mid range ribbon has a pure resistance of 0.2 ohm. An extra resistor in line with the midrange changes this to about 1 ohm. This special resistor (like the ribbons created from aluminium foil) is visible on the backside of the speaker. Although about 80% of the power is lost in this resistor the signal is less affected than the best transformer available.
The cross-over is a "first order" cross over with only 6db/oct slopes. The less rise and fall the slopes have the better the phase response of the speaker is. But first order cross overs can
only be used if the driver units of the speaker have a linear response far beyond the actual required frequency range. For example the scintilla midrange can handle anything between 50 and 3500hz.
Also the tweeter has a very complicated construction. It consists out of four, 1 cm wide, ribbons placed to the left and right but also in front of and behind the midrange. Because they are thinner and electrically in line, the low impedance is not as problematic as with the mid range. I was surprised with the phase of the tweeters, the front pair is in phase with the midrange and the back pair is out of phase with the midrange! So in the big cross-over range between mid and high, in the front the sound level is amplified were to the back it is reduced.
The giant, also 135cm long, top side 27 and bottom side 36cm wide, Bas
ribbon is no pure ribbon like I said before. First the aluminium foil is in front of the magnets and second it is stiffened by means of a thin plastic film. The active part of the membrane is much bigger in relation to the entire foil compared with common magnetostatic speakers. Also the magnets are located on the backside. The electric current required for sound generation floods through 2 paths that are merged with each other and have a resistance of 2 ohm. The production process of this bass driver takes one hour. The trapezoid shape is no coincidence or any design feature. The asymmetrical shape is one of the technological solutions that ensure a clean and controllable resonance of the ribbon between about 50hz in the upper parts and 30 hertz in the lower parts. The listening test proved that all this effort was by no means wasted. A full, clear bass that could go so deep we heard never before with any test of a planar speaker. But this is only possible with the right amplifiers and the right location in the room.
Because all current available real high end power amps are tuned for high current power it is not so difficult to find the suitable amplifier nowadays. But be aware, the analytical scintillas are very sensitive to each change in the audio chain. Only with the best components the true possibilities of this speaker will be revealed. With any good amplifier you will de-class the majority of the competition but it is almost unbelievable how much better it will get when a real super power amplifier is used.
Up till now I've tested 3 different power amplifiers. After I started with the already mentioned outsiders I used the 3 times as expensive number twenty from Mark Levinsson. These showed that the small outsiders (German made) performed quite adequate. In the controlled powerful bass and in the speed and clarity they were comparable to the Americans but in the mids and highs the number twenties showed that the scintillas could sound a bit more smooth and natural with a better soundstage.
At Christmas the German Apogee distributor had sent me two D3 from Classe Audio. These wonderful Canadian Class A stereo amplifiers are about 8000DM a piece. And the in 1986 introduced high current version cost about 4000dm extra but I couldn't get this on early enough. Up till that moment I had single amped the speakers. The speaker requires thick cable and the use of different cable types for mid/hi and bass can lead to non a homogenous sounding set-up. When the Canadian amplifiers arrived I was able to bi-amp the Scintillas. When I used only one of these amplifiers, the result was no good although I would have been very happy, if I had not know the true possibilities of the speakers. So when using these amplifiers bi-amping was necessary, and this gave a very good maybe a little too good sounding set-up where the bass is not so well controlled as with the Mark Levinssons. But overall it so impressive that you will forget all technology within minutes and you think you are live at the scene.
Comparable with the amplifiers is the response to the room. Even if you are not well located the Scintillas provide you with an excellent sound that everyone will adore. But if you are in the correct spot the soundstage will open up to dimensions I have never heard anywhere before.
Don't be satisfied too soon as even the smallest changes in positioning the speakers can dramatically improve the already excellent results. The basic set up rules for planar speakers (Sufficient distance from rear and side walls) also are applicable for the Scintillas. But you might be occupied for quit some time to get the real potential out of it. Also the sitting height has substantial influence on the sound quality.
Nowadays I know which qualities of the Scintilla had impressed me from the first moment on. This fantastic speaker combines two worlds that normally are regarded as opposites. Even with its full sound, they sound very analytical, fresh and temperament full. Listening to human voices even the untrained listener will immediately detect the neutrality of this speaker. Compared with my reference speaker up till now (Audio Eclusiv electrostat) these ribbons deliver more volume in lower frequencies, higher sound level and details that can be compared with the best electrostatic headphones. When the room fits and the speakers are well located it's complete useless to add any subwoofer. Because the bass remains clean and transparent over the entire range. The only possible improvement I can imagine is when Bass and Mid/high are driven separately via an active cross over.
The love at first sound will certainly result in a long term relationship.
R. Wendemuth.
Test equipment:
Turntable: Nakamichi TX-1000
Tonearm: SME Series V and Dynavector DV-507
Cartridges: Clearaudio Praedikat, Madrigal Carnegie One, Ortofon MC-30 Super
Pre Amplifier: Cello Audio Suite
Power amplifiers : Classe Audio D3, Mark Levinson No 20, Outsider Class A