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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
gallant_diva
143 posts
 
Darkmoebius: Thank you for the well wishes :)
magfan
1,583 posts
 
The ICE modules are NOT continuous rated. The very high limits quoted, like the 250 / 550 watt ASP500 are time limited numbers. There FTC power is much lower. The output Zobel will fry. The ASP500 time limit is 60seconds while the ASP1000 is 30seconds.
darkmoebius
899 posts
 
Gallant_diva,

Your system honestly inspired me to seriously look into Apogees, especially a pair of Divas. My next system upgrade is going to be built around them. I just need to move some place with a big enough room, first.
gallant_diva
143 posts
 
Darkmoebius: I will shoot you an email how to place the Divas. In order not to disturb this thread, email me privately please your room dimensions.
clavil
254 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.

than let's replace perfectly by best possible ;-)
obviously, a strong and stable amplifier at low impedance and with a high damping factor will do a better job than a weak one, and most of tubes or class A ...

considering the budget of our friend your suggestion choice of the Rowland 5 is good one and I am sure he will notice a big improvement

once again: I have been driving my Infinity for 14 years with an David Belles OCM (200 watts) + Treshold pre ... the day I tried Rowland (1000 Watt into 4 Ohms and Damping Factor 1000 at 1 kHz I was just schocked ... I couldn't believe my ears !

I discovered after 14 years how my Infinty can sound !!

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