My Apogee system with great resolution, sweet detail & a truly amazing soundstage. If you have not had the opportunity to experience Apogee true ribbon loudspeakers, they present a live music portrayal that at times seem to rival live music. Recently added the Pass Labs XA100.5 Class A monoblocks and truly incredible sounding Gustard R26 r2r ladder DAC. These additions have elevated my system to another musical plane. I drive the upper and lower ribbon panels with the XA100.5's (bi-wired) and the built in subs with the W4S SX1000R monoblocks makes up the (tri-wire) all balanced cabling through the Apogee DAX active crossover system. The Gustard r2r rivals many other DACS, it is simply amazing for the price and I could not be happier with the incredible sound quality that easily competes with units 6 times the price.
Full range ribbon system with twin 10” Vifa woofers per side... in my experience, the Apogees are near the top of the loudspeaker food chain for detail, soundstage of width & depth for engaging live music realism. Panel dimensions are 6.5ft tall weighing 234 lb.s per side. They sit 50” from the rear wall and 75” apart horizontally. This spacing is required for the rear ribbon timing to take place to give them the soundstage magic they reproduce. They utilize Apogee’s active balanced crossover system for incredible ribbon transition.
Aurender N10 Reference Server
Reference server/streamer.... really enjoy this great accurate convenient source of music. I currently have 3326 Album/CD files stored on two interior drives.
Pass Labs XA100.5 Mono Blocks
Pure Class A monoblocks... wow such engaging amplifiers with wonderful tonal detail and musical layering with stunning impactful bass. An amplifier match made in heaven for the Apogees and many other loudspeakers.
Wryed4Sound SX1000R Mono Blocks
High power (1140/wpc) Class D monoblocks... perfect, quick muscle to drive the twin 10” built in subs in each enclosure.
Mark Levinson 326s Preamp
Super ultra quiet yet wonderfully dynamic preamp built like a battleship Mark Levinson style. Possesses incredibly wide sounstage and th air around separate instruments is uncanny and detail retrieval is just astounding.
Apogee Acoustics Active crossover DAX
A custom balanced crossover designed to adjust the high/midrange ribbons and bass balance listening levels.
Gustard R26 Pro r2r
Gustard’s new R26 Pro r2r ladder fully balanced DAC.... really outclassed my previous DACs with an incredibly lowered noise floor, much wider soundstage and wonderful detail retrieval. An absolute giant killer to say the least.
Sony CDP-XA7es
Reference CD transport made by Sony. Build quality is unmatched. Still plays and operates flawlessly to this day over 25 years since I purchased new. They certainly don't make them like this anymore!
Verastarr Grand Illusion Evo Series
The Verastarr Grand Illusion EVO cables carry the high frequency & bass ribbon panel signals and I use the Xindak FS-1 ribbon speaker cables for the built in twin 10" subs. These ribbon cables all compliment each other well for their individual frequency duties.
Tara Labs RSC Digital Air Evolution EBU cable
Tara Labs RSC Digital Air Evolution balanced Digital cable w/EVO Floating Ground system. Very quite highly detailed cable with a lush presentation.
Tice Audio Powerblock Signature IIIB
High-End Power conditioner
Xindak Audio FS-1
This Xindak ribbon speaker cable has fit in perfectly for cabling the built in twin 10" subs within the Apogees. Really high quality, great sounding strings.
The Pass Labs 100.5 sound absolutely incredible with the Apogees and provide plenty of power. They stay in pure Class A even at high volume levels. The detail & musical layering is simply delicious. I was really surprised the 100.5's would provide that kind of current needed but they absolutely do.
I am a serious fan of Apogees. I’ll never trade my Duetta IIs. I’m going to be doing a full Graz upgrade the end of this year. I’m sure it is due to limited space options, but your gems are definitely way too close to the walls. Need to breath :).
Wow,those speakers are monsters.I have to believe they give a Krell a heck of a work/out.Honestly,The amp must be working like a dog.I would maybe consider,finding another big SS amp and run the ribbons with one and the woofers with the other maybe.I bet those speakers would open up like nothing you have heard before.Just a thought.Years ago I had a set of Martin Logan’s driven by some parasound jc1s in a HT system.When I would run it in 2 channel with music cranked,you could fry an egg on those things.Just thinking out loud
Wow,those speakers are monsters.I have to believe they give a Krell a heck of a work/out.Honestly,The amp must be working like a dog.I would maybe consider,finding another big SS amp and run the ribbons with one and the woofers with the other maybe.I bet those speakers would open up like nothing you have heard before.Just a thought.Years ago I had a set of Martin Logan’s driven by some parasound jc1s in a HT system.When I would run it in 2 channel with music cranked,you could fry an egg on those things.Just thinking out loud
Really nice old school system Ross! Those Apogee's are monsters and love mixing Levinson and Krell you don't see that combo too often. And the classic Tice powerblock to round it all out very 90's retro!
