Once the fave of the yuppie high-end generation, Apogee faded into the sunset with the passings of Jason Bloom and Leo Spiegel. I remember Audio Breakthough's then Upper Westside of Manhattan store (where I first met David Chesky back in the mid-'80s) having box upon box containing Apogee Stage and Caliper speaker leaning against the wall, yuppies walking in handing the proprietors their credit card and walking out of the store with a pair of speaker sight unheard. Bill Hart will remember the Apogees being the darling of the Westchester Audiophile Society back then with Jason being a regular participant in club meetings.
One of my favorite Apogee stories goes back to the old Chicago CES show. Apogee was debuting the new, small Stage speakers and Jason asked me what I thought. I told him it was listening to the Lilliputian Symphony Orchestra; everything was tiny and it felt like you were looking down on the orchestra. Three months later, Jason had designed a riser to elevate the speakers from the floor.
Apogees, especially their biggest monster speaker, (whose impedance dropped down to a paltry 0.25 ohm) were were hardly an easy load to drive, driving the business of Krell, Classe and Electrocompaniet back then. One owner of the big Apogees (Grands IIRC?) tried amplifier upon amplifier including Krell, Classe and many other amplifiers in frustration. None could drive the 0.25 ohm load. The only amplifier he finally found that could drive these behemoths was the Electrocompanient amplifiers from Norway. I do remember though, one hearty member of the Westchester Club who so detested the sound of solid-state back then, decided to despite the shortcomings, to drive his Apogee Duettas with cj Premier 5 tube amplifiers.
Found this old TAS picture online though of someone driving their Apogees with the then 200 wpc cj Evolution hybrid mosfet amplifiers.
With all the Apogees on the market, there was a huge demand for parts but unfortunately neither Jason or Leo left behind any drawings, specs or anything else that would help anyone wanting to buy or resurrect the company. Then a couple of years ago, a company in Australia (http://www.apogeeacoustics.com/company.html) obtained the rights and have been building new Apogee speakers as well as providing parts for repair.
Ked (Bonzo) started a discussion in another thread about his pursuit of Apogee speakers and their sound and Rob suggested starting a new thread devoted to the speakers. Certainly there's plenty of Apogee devotees still out there in the high end audio world (Oh yes, I got a chuckle where HTR referred to in a review back in 1990 Apogees being electrostatic speakers; nothing could be further from the truth!) So feel free to chime in everyone!
One of my favorite Apogee stories goes back to the old Chicago CES show. Apogee was debuting the new, small Stage speakers and Jason asked me what I thought. I told him it was listening to the Lilliputian Symphony Orchestra; everything was tiny and it felt like you were looking down on the orchestra. Three months later, Jason had designed a riser to elevate the speakers from the floor.

Apogees, especially their biggest monster speaker, (whose impedance dropped down to a paltry 0.25 ohm) were were hardly an easy load to drive, driving the business of Krell, Classe and Electrocompaniet back then. One owner of the big Apogees (Grands IIRC?) tried amplifier upon amplifier including Krell, Classe and many other amplifiers in frustration. None could drive the 0.25 ohm load. The only amplifier he finally found that could drive these behemoths was the Electrocompanient amplifiers from Norway. I do remember though, one hearty member of the Westchester Club who so detested the sound of solid-state back then, decided to despite the shortcomings, to drive his Apogee Duettas with cj Premier 5 tube amplifiers.
Found this old TAS picture online though of someone driving their Apogees with the then 200 wpc cj Evolution hybrid mosfet amplifiers.
With all the Apogees on the market, there was a huge demand for parts but unfortunately neither Jason or Leo left behind any drawings, specs or anything else that would help anyone wanting to buy or resurrect the company. Then a couple of years ago, a company in Australia (http://www.apogeeacoustics.com/company.html) obtained the rights and have been building new Apogee speakers as well as providing parts for repair.
Ked (Bonzo) started a discussion in another thread about his pursuit of Apogee speakers and their sound and Rob suggested starting a new thread devoted to the speakers. Certainly there's plenty of Apogee devotees still out there in the high end audio world (Oh yes, I got a chuckle where HTR referred to in a review back in 1990 Apogees being electrostatic speakers; nothing could be further from the truth!) So feel free to chime in everyone!
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