CURT TOMHAVE'S SYSTEM

I've had the Apogee Stage as the cornerstone of my system since 1990. The dedicated stands were added a year later and considered a must. The original right channel mid-range unit was damaged in shipping. After several phone conversations with Mark Dailey of Apogee's engineering staff we decided to send the unit back. Upon receiving the faulty panel Apogee decided not only to replace it but to send a matching midrange unit for the left speaker. The Tweeter ribbon had also been upgraded from the time mine had been manufactured, so a matched set of new ribbons and detailed instructions were sent all at no cost to me. This kind of customer service is rare indeed, thanks Mark where ever you are.
Much has been written about the sound of the Stage so I won't bore you with details. For me the sound jelled with the addition of two products. First was when I replaced a stereo B&K 202+ with  a used pair of McCormack  DNA-1 mono blocks. These speakers need a lot of clean power and current to get them to come alive, I don't believe there is such a thing as overkill. The second addition was Kimber's 8TC factory bi-wired and terminated. The McCormack's controlled the bottom end while the Kimber opened the top with out either coloring the Stages fabulous midrange.

Curt Tomhave

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT

Rega Planer II/250B/Stanton 881S
Rega Planet CD
Sonic Frontiers Line-1 pre amp
Denon TU260 tuner
MacCormack DNA-1 Mono blocks
Kimber 8TC bi-wired

Surround additions:
Bryston 2B (mono center)
Carver The Receiver (surrounds)
Lexicon C2 (surround)
NHT Super Zeros (surrounds)
NHT C-1 (center channel)
REL Storm II (sub woofer)

STEVEN KASTNER'S SYSTEM

I am very pleased to see a site for Apogee speaker users. I own a pair of Stages (front), and a pair of Centaur Minors (rear) which I use in my music/home theater system.
My system is rather complex. I use the Newcastle AVP-9080 as a control center. I had been using a Llano A100 class A stereo amp to power the Stages, but had to return it to my friend when he needed it again. The Llano /Apogee combination is fabulous.
I now use an Acurus A150 on the Stages. The A150 (which I had been using to power the Centaur minors), does a very good job, but there is a noticeable drop-off from the Llano. I am using a borrowed NAD for the Minors, and it is adequate, but not recommended.

By the way, I have the factory stands on both pairs of speakers. They make a big difference in the soundstage and focus. I use a pair of self powered, biamped Event 20/20bas near-field monitors for a center channel. It's weird, but I find them to be a good timbre match with the ribbons.
I also use a Yamaha YST SW-100 subwoofer. It works well with the ribbons in my average sized living room. The small (six inch) dual servo controlled drivers extend to 21 Hz @-3db, but are quick enough not to smear the bass, and the sub integrates well with the ribbons.
I have Pioneer DVD and LD, Sony DAT, and Adcom CD changer. But I also have a quadraphonic front end. I have a Parasound PSP-1500 and a PSP-1000 preamp which I output to the front and rear inputs of the analog 6 channel input of the AVP-9080. I use the Parasound preamps as a quad patchbay. I have 3 quad reel to reel decks: a Sansui QD-5500, a Tascam 44, and an Akai 400 D-SS. They connect to the Parasound preamps. I also have a Fosgate/Tate II SQ decoder, and a Panasonic CD-4 decoder.
These also output to the Parasound preamps. The Apogees are excellent in quad. The close match of the Stages and the Centaurs (using the same tweeters) is very advantageous with quad.

Thanks for the great site.
Steven Kastner