So Many Apogees for sale, and so few takers

I agree with some of the posters that pointed out that some of the asking prices seem exorbitant. While I admire the effort, and despite numerous auditions, I've never heard the Apogees set up well. The rest of the gear seemed up to the task, but the various rooms I've heard them in all presented with a lumpy frequency response and a downward tilt. That they've attained a somewhat legendary status leads me to believe others have had more success with them. As far as amplification, I can understand why some might balk, and yet other just embrace the requirements. All in all, they don't seem to be the most appealing choice for most.

Unsound, I've heard some bad sound from Apogees as well. Some of the early models had voicing problems, and also differed within production runs. You can see this in the reviews and the response measurements. Overall performance and consistency improved radically over the years.

In two channel reproduction of recordings made in large venues, it's long been known that a downtilt of 4-6 dB actually sounds better than flat. For small ensembles, flat is better. This is a shortcoming of two channel recordings, not the speakers -- basically, forward-facing cardioid microphones don't pick up enough ambiance, which, in a large hall, is attenuated in highs, and close miking is even worse. Some speakers take the flat approach, some the downtilt approach. I don't think one or the other is right.

One problem Apogees do have is a hollowed-out bass response, with a peak at the very low primary resonance. Essentially, they traded away flatness for superior bass extension.

Still, they made some superb speakers. I think one of the main reasons they aren't more popular now is that despite Graz's life-saving support, the woofers are very costly to refurbish. I've seen long-time Apogee lovers say that they're no longer an economical proposition for that reason. This may explain relatively high selling prices -- if you'd spent a lot to repair yours, you'd naturally want to recoup some of it. And of course, the larger planars will always appeal to a relatively few people, e.g., those with dedicated sound rooms or dirt on their wives. The Tympanis suffer from this problem as well, which I think is why they can be purchased for prices that are insanely low compared to more reasonably-sized speakers of comparable quality.

Yeah, Apogees are definitely not something you would put in your livingroom or home theater system. But then again, neither are Maggies, and there are tons of Maggie owners.

I would go so far as to say, Maggies are probably the best sounding speaker for the price available new today. Perfect? No, definitely not perfect in many respects, but damn fine sound for the $$$.

However, if you are a Maggie owner/lover and haven't heard an Apogee ... when you do you may become an Apogee convert. Apogees improve on many of the things that Maggies don't do so well, like dynamics, bass response, synergy between tweeter and woofer panels, etc.

I agree, then probably need a dedicated room, but if you have that available then you may be lucky enough to own a pair of these at prices that are a steal for the sound you get out of them.

Jason Bloom of Apogee was the biggest jerk I ever met in audio. When you would walk into his room at CES he was so arrogant and he would not let you play music you knew well. He was the kind of person you would want to kick in the ass. The exact opposite of say Jeff Rowland. The best I have heard them were with two Classe 25 watt all class A amplifiers. I liked them better than when I heard the speakers with Krell or Threshold. Another good amp sound was with the original Meitner Amps.

One huge difference is that Maggies are still made, and supported by the company. They'll refurbish almost all of their speakers, even custom-build drivers for discontinued models if you need one, as I discovered when Fedex did a job on my Tympanis. You can replace a treble ribbon for a fraction of the cost of a Graz ribbon -- not criticizing Graz here, but he's a relatively small volume operation. If your bass drivers are delaminating and you have a weekend, you can fix them yourself with Magnepan's kit for $40, where a new Apogee bass driver would cost you thousands. It all makes Maggies a much more practical option.

I do wish I could get my hands on a couple of Apogee midrange ribbon drivers, though, and put them in my Tympanis. :-) This is one of the few areas I think in which an Apogee will beat a Tympani, but it's a crucial one, since the midrange is the soul of the music. There are some DIY midrange ribbon projects on DIY audio, but it looks like they'd take a summer.

I think it's also true that there are a lot more Maggies out there, and both the new and used prices offer inimitable bang for the buck. Apogees were more expensive to make and repair, which is apparently the main reason the company went out of business.