Apogee, Acuphase and Active

Sometimes, readers are the best listeners ...

"I’ve read your two articles: “Jeff’s Getting a New Stereo System: Part One” and “Jeff’s Getting a New Stereo System: Part Two.” I have a recommendation for you, and maybe it will be an upgrade from what you have right now.

Why not get an Apogee Full Range speaker system? These are the ones restored with all new Graz-made ribbons; they are under $20k/pair and new speakers, not used ones. They’re huge and a perfect fit for a large room such as yours.

Now this is the interesting part, why don’t you go active with them? You’ll need four transformers (two per speaker) to bring the impedance from 0.25 ohm to 2 or 4 ohms, and protect the ribbons from DC offset and transients; you can drive the bass panels directly as they have a linear 2-ohm impedance and are much less delicate than the midranges and tweeters.

Next, get three Accuphase A-47 amplifiers (can hold a 1-ohm load without blinking), and they’re perfect for this job. You can buy them from Japan and change them from 230V to 120V if the pricing strategy bothers you.

Last but not less important, get a DEQX HDP-5 to tie everything together and you’re done. It would be impossible to review DACs with this setup, but you still can review amps and speakers.

I think it would be a big upgrade from what you have and be several times less expensive than the Magico/Soulution setup. You’ll end up with full-range, phase-coherent, time-aligned, textbook-perfect frequency response with ribbon speakers driven by pure-class-A amplifiers. It doesn’t get better than that."

Sincerely,

Hector
Spain

JP