electrostats vs ribbon drivers

@Nandric: The Australian you are referring to is Graz, see http://www.apogeeacoustics.com - there are dealers around the world you rebuild Apogees with Graz's drivers, so the Apogee marquee lives on very well. There are various postings around the web with pictures of such restorations, and they are really beautiful. A Diva can be had in the US for around $14K

Dear Florianw, First of all I think that you should supstitute 'historical reason' for 'love and empathy'.
In the second place I very much enjoy your story and explanation of all the models made. There are btw more examples of brilliant designers who become too optimistic
with their intentions: Nudell, Joachim (Audiophysic),etc.
What a waste. But it seems to be very difficult to combine
design capability with the commercial one.
Which one is your 'baby' and which one can you recommend as
a 'smart choice'? And of course thanks for your responce.

Dear Ack, Someone with the name Graz should live in Graz
in Austria. This way I would be able to visit him in 10
hours. I thought that one need to order his drivers by him
in Australia and than do all the work himself. Thanks for
the info and site. Glad to see that this 'icon' has still
many admirer.

Regards to both,

Hi Rrog

The fact concerning the ML CLS is that I had the opportunity to listen to it many different times with several different amplifiers at my local brick and morter dealer, oh how I miss those days. In any case I heard these speakers matched up to what I would estimate to be among the best amplification of the day including Threshold SA-1 Class A mono amps, Audio Research D250 servo and M-100 mono amplifiers. Maybe the speakers weren't in a large enough space? Can't say for sure but I never cared for them and they ALWAYS sounded lean. What I DID hear was the potential because at that time I was unaware of any speaker that was more resolving than the CLS, that is until I heard the Apogees. The Sequels just didn't blend the dynamic bass driver with the panel and I felt they were a total failure, not at all engaging to me.

There's an Apogee forum with lots of info, especially in the older archived section.

http://www.apogeeacoustics.com/forum/index.php

I own a pair of Calipers that I picked up for a song and "fixed up". There's only so much that can be done though by yourself. A qualified Apogee technician is needed to replace bass ribbons since the process is detailed and difficult and a mess up means a whole new driver needs to be bought.

If you can score any Apogee from someone who lives near you then you should give them a try. I don't think I would trust these being shipped to me though - too fragile. They are 30 years old in general and need some TLC for sure.

Nandric: Hello and thank you for your response. Yes it seems that the best always die too young or go out of business. Which one is my baby? Well, i have 3 babies: One pair of Apogee Grands, one pair of Apogee Calipers and one pair of Apogee Stages. There is also one electrostatic, an Acoustat Spectra 11 which i enjoy.

The smartest choice i believe in the Apogee lineup is a Caliper or a Duetta. All Apogees require very good equipment to make them sing, but they represent, at least to me, the best compromise of size and sound.

Cheers