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Best Amp to drive my Apogee Stages?

Greetings all.
I am wondering if I might get some good suggestions from anyone who might be firmiliar with the Apogee Stages. I have owned them for quite awhile, but due to blowing up my Krell (300i)intergrated amplifier more than once now (a $400 bill to fix it each time) I beleive that it is time to buy the right amplifier for the job. I need more power for sure, but my wallet is light these days. This means that I must minimize my purchase to something definitly under $2K and even more like $1200 price range. This seems to limit me quite a bit in my findings, but I am wondering if I might have missed something with my research so far? I have reviewed Krell, Levinson, Pass Labs and Threshold to date. Each have older options in my price range, but I am not certain if any will work better with my speakers?

Any thoughts out there?

Thank you in advance.

-LoveItLoud
loveitloud
wrat
16 posts
 
I used to have Stages I used adcom gfa555 and blew up 3 of em
then tried a Bryston 4b worked but did not sound as good as the adcom tried a carver tfm35 sounded better than the bryston. Settled on a pair of very modded Dynaco Mk III's I used that combo for 10 years or so
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Matti, I am not partial to any brand of equipment. I am more interested in what components work well together. Probably the most popular amp used with Apogee speakers was the Counterpoint SA 220.
clavil
254 posts
 

I am driving my Stages with TRL GT-400 and I love it!!!!!!

I agree with So_good that a *good* 100-150 WPC tube amp can drive the Stage well.

A good tube amp to consider is Audio Valve Challenger. Its sound is lush and seductive.

that's fine but can you tell us how they sound when you hear Bruckner 8th symphony at realistic volume or some Puccini or Wagner opera ?

If you want to get the best out of these speakers you need to control them perfectly ...
and this was quite a problem in the eighties
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Clavil, How do you know when you have a speaker controlled "perfectly"?
The truth is you may never hear the true potential of a speaker like the Apogee. Because this is a hard speaker to drive there is no amplifier happy with the Apogee load therefore any amplifier connected to this type of speaker will never sound it's best.
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
Clavil

The TRL GT-400 are 400 watts each?....I'm 100% sure they can drive the little Stage with ease.

(My Onkyo M-504's don't even get past "warm" driving the Stage)

Dave
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