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My first Apogee speaker was a pre-owned
Centaur Minor. The Minor was a
relatively small speaker with a 6 1/2 inch woofer and a 26 inch midrange/treble
ribbon. Though the Centaur Minor
was a little light on bass, the sweet clarity and room-filling 3D sound of the
Apogee ribbon hooked me immediately. I
placed the Minors in my master bedroom atop their stands, and drove them with an
old Carver amp I had at the time. My
KEF 105.3’s remained in the living room as my primary stereo speakers.
After a few months, I decided that,
though I loved the midrange and treble of the Minor, I could improve upon the
sound by moving up to the larger Centaur with an 8 inch woofer.
So, I bought a pair of Centaurs and sold the Minors.
While both the Centaurs and the Minors
utilized Apogee’s 26 inch ribbon, there was a definite improvement in the bass
with the larger speakers. So much
so, in fact, that I decided to replace the KEF speakers with the Centaurs as my
primary speakers in the living room.
Apogee’s Centaur series were very
elegant looking speakers. The
medium gray “Anthracite” panel and the deep black grille cloth were
complimentary, understated, and very attractive.
Even the wife liked them.
I upgraded my amp in the living room to
an Acurus A250 about the same time I moved the Centaurs into place.
The Acurus amp did an excellent job of driving the Centaurs, and they
sounded as sweet and clean in the living room as they had in the upstairs
bedroom. I experimented with
placing stands under the Centaurs to gain a more realistic, full size soundstage
and image, but soon learned that the Centaurs lost a lot of their bass strength
when they were placed on stands. Apparently,
the Centaurs benefited a lot from the bass reinforcement of the floor.
Meanwhile, I continued to read about
Apogee speakers and learn more about them.
Though I loved the natural sound and sweetness of the Centaurs, there was
still something missing. A
full-sized soundstage with realistic height would be nice, and just a little
more bass would be good, too.
I considered buying a used Slant 8 or
one of the new Cepheus speakers that Apogee had just introduced in 1998.
In fact, I placed a call to Apogee, spoke with the marketing manager
there, and decided that a Cepheus 8 would be just the ticket for my relatively
large listening room.
Unfortunately, Apogee had no Cepheus
8’s in stock (I later learned that they were having difficulties in getting
bass enclosure cabinets) and they couldn’t refer me to a dealer who could sell
me one. Since there were no Apogee
dealers in Denver, Colorado at the time, I asked the marketing manager to give
me a call when the situation had righted itself, and to let me know where I
could purchase a Cepheus 8.
Months went by with no call from the
marketing manager, and finally I called him back to check on the availability of
Cepheus 8’s around the country. An
unfamiliar voice answered the phone and informed me that Apogee was closing its
doors.
This was a shock at the time, but I
realized that I might have to drop the idea of buying a Cepheus 8.
In the weeks and months after my first contact with the marketing manager
at Apogee, I read a lot of good things about Apogee full range ribbon speakers.
Finally, I decided that a full range Apogee might be even better than a
Cepheus 8 or another Apogee hybrid. Eventually
I settled on Duetta Signatures as the best Apogee speakers for my room.
Luckily, I was able to find a pair in mint condition on the Internet, and
have them shipped to me.
The Duetta Sigs have been a revelation,
They are the most natural sounding speakers I have ever heard.
They are smooth as silk, measure almost completely flat across the
frequency spectrum, and are a real delight.
If I take good care of them -- and if I can find replacement ribbons for
them whenever I do need to make a repair -- I may never ever own any other
speakers.
The Duetta Sig soundstage is full-sized
-- I can look a singer straight in the eye when I’m standing in the room.
The Duetta Sigs are very accurate speakers, yet they do not have even a
hint of harshness in them. Initially,
there were two noticeable and measurable “bumps” in my in-room bass
response, a 12 dB one at 50 Hz and a 6 dB one at 100 Hz.
Since that time I have added a good subwoofer and an outboard crossover
to the system, and this has flattened the response remarkably.
I am now driving the Duetta Signatures
with a CODA Continuum Audio Stage amplifier which delivers 200 watts into 8
ohms, 400 watts into 4 ohms, and a lot of current.
The combination of this new amp and the new subwoofer have really made a
difference in my room, and I am delighted with what I’m hearing.
My Duetta Sigs are set up flanking a big
screen television, 53 inches apart, 30½” from the rear walls, and 19 inches
from the side walls. We live in an average-sized house, but all the rooms on the
main floor are laid out in an “open design.” There are two large archways in the left wall of my listening
room which open to other rooms on the main floor. I can fill up the whole main floor of the house with pure,
sweet music anytime I want ... and I frequently do.
If you’ve never owned Apogee speakers,
I encourage you to buy a pair if you can find them on the used market in good
condition. In my experience, there
is nothing as revealing, as sweet and pure, and as realistic as an Apogee
speaker! When mated with a good
subwoofer, even a small hybrid speaker such as the Centaur Minor will amaze you
with its transparency, clarity, and natural soundstage.
Prentice Geddie
(Apogee Acoustics Users Group Forum)
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