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I too have owned more than one
Apogee speakers and are very happy with my current Mini Grands.
My first pair of Apogees was the Duetta II. I loved them especially after
I modified the crossover by soldering all connections, bypassed the caps
with Wondercaps, bypassed the hi-lo tweeter switch to permanent hi
position and added Edison-Price music posts. These mods increased clarity
and bass definition and apparent depth. The sound was incredible, so real
and lifelike. I unfortunately had to depart with them when the interior
designer
said they had to go.
I shopped all over looking for speakers that would do the trick for me but
that were perhaps smaller in size and had a higher wife acceptance factor.
I settled for Totem Model 1's. They were the closest thing I could find to
the
no box, open sound of my Duettas.
After about three years of boredom with my giving in to aesthetics, I
decided to come 'home' to Apogees once again and bought a used pair of
Mini Grands last summer. Of course they sounded great in stock form but
knowing how the upgrades I did to the Duettas really brought out their
full potential, I soon was modifying the Mini Grands.
I started again with E-P posts all around. Next I replaced the inductors
in the Stages with Solo foils and bypassed the caps again with Infinicaps.
These mods made great improvements once again. Next came the DAX. My
opinion is that this is the weakest link in the entire speaker system.
I started with the power supply - high speed Hexfred rectification and
larger Elna Cerafine caps. Inside the DAX I replaced every power supply
cap with Black Gates and all of the Burr-Brown Op amps with newer better
sounding units. Lastly, I replaced all of the Rel-Cap filter caps with
Infinicaps. Now the system really cooks! Keep in mind that I did all of
this without a schematic, which I have yet been able to find.
I can add more specifics about parts etc. on a later posting. What I
really could use is the schematic to take the DAX to the next level. If I
could figure out which resistors are in the signal path I could get more
transparency from the unit by replacing them with Vishays. Like wise
replacing some bypass caps around the single ended to balance mode
transformer circuits could prove very favorable.
Maybe you could reach out and find someone who has the schematics. I did
meet someone on-line who actually knew the DAX designer but he was only
slightly useful and did not go too far out of his way to help.
As you may know there is a lot of interest in this type of project.
Good luck with the site and again I am overjoyed with what you are
creating here.
Jack Neber
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