Was selling a pair of Dahlquist DQ-12's just trying to thin the herd. Was meeting a guy in Murfreesboro at 5:00 pm to make the deal. That morning I'm perusing craigslist just passing time and lo and behold, a pair of apogee centaur's for $400.00 or obo
One ribbon was still working, but it had sat next to a heat register and was all bent up, so I emailed the guy and asked if he would take $300, I was selling the DQ-12's for $275, so basically an even up trade and he agreed.
Drove up and sold the DQ-12's then headed over to get the Apogee's thinking they would end up sitting for quite a while until I got the $400 or so to replace the ribbon.
Real nice guy and he had them hooked up to a Kenwood KR-9400, a beast of an amp. For whatever reason, speakers didn't really sound that great but I never really pay much attention anyway as they always sound different when I get them home.
Started talking about the Kenwood and he was telling me how he had it totally restored, turned out to be by echowars himself. Showed me the letter Glen gave him when he picked it up and of course it could not possibly have been gone through more thoroughly.
So not only a great looking receiver, basically also better than new.
The Apogee's. Not sure what I have to be honest. They are the Minors (and included the stands) but he said they had 10' woofers in them. Don't know if they were replaced or ????. If they were replaced, sounds pretty awesome to me.
Got them home and of course immediately hooked them up. Figured there would be a huge difference between the good ribbon speaker and the bent ribbon speaker.
Used a Carver M500t with my Conrad Johnson PV2ar preamp and a P.S. Audio Digital Link III dac. Put on some high res recordings not really expecting that great as I sort of just plopped the speakers down.
I may have a new favorite speaker.
Was shocked the bent ribbon one still sounded so good. I'm obviously still going to get it replaced, but not in as much of a hurry now.
Would have to do a side by side to be sure, but maybe not quite as "airy" in the mids and highs as my MartinLogan SL3, but surprisingly, to me anyway, they seem to have a much bigger sweet spot, or at least I could be sitting way off center and while not "magic", I could still hear the other speaker just fine and was still excellent. You can just insert any word used to describe speakers here and they had it - transparency, detail, micro detail layering , texture, etc etc, For my tastes, and my tastes only as everyone likes something different, truly a speaker I can own and not long for anything else.
Not to mention, personally I find them a gorgeous looking speaker
I liked the DQ-12's, but , and I am only speaking for myself and for my tastes, for me those DQ-12's weren't even in the same league as the Apogee, so turned out to be one heck of a trade for me.
and that's with a "bad ribbon !
Can't wait to upgrade the caps as I have read that makes a huge difference.
Don't know if it's true, but read they are actually a fairly efficient speaker and read a few times how you haven't really heard them at their best until you drive them with some valves.
So happens I have a Mingda MC34AB (75wpc/40wpc) that if true, should drive them nicely. I was actually going to sell the amp as all of my speakers are very inefficient and I didn't want to buy speakers just for it, but now there may be one disappointed guy who was showing interest as I'm holding on to it until I put it on the apogees.
Only had them for a day, but for now they get a 3 thumbs up and a must hear speaker in my opinion.
These aren't the minors, but is what mine look like.
One ribbon was still working, but it had sat next to a heat register and was all bent up, so I emailed the guy and asked if he would take $300, I was selling the DQ-12's for $275, so basically an even up trade and he agreed.
Drove up and sold the DQ-12's then headed over to get the Apogee's thinking they would end up sitting for quite a while until I got the $400 or so to replace the ribbon.
Real nice guy and he had them hooked up to a Kenwood KR-9400, a beast of an amp. For whatever reason, speakers didn't really sound that great but I never really pay much attention anyway as they always sound different when I get them home.
Started talking about the Kenwood and he was telling me how he had it totally restored, turned out to be by echowars himself. Showed me the letter Glen gave him when he picked it up and of course it could not possibly have been gone through more thoroughly.
So not only a great looking receiver, basically also better than new.
The Apogee's. Not sure what I have to be honest. They are the Minors (and included the stands) but he said they had 10' woofers in them. Don't know if they were replaced or ????. If they were replaced, sounds pretty awesome to me.
Got them home and of course immediately hooked them up. Figured there would be a huge difference between the good ribbon speaker and the bent ribbon speaker.
Used a Carver M500t with my Conrad Johnson PV2ar preamp and a P.S. Audio Digital Link III dac. Put on some high res recordings not really expecting that great as I sort of just plopped the speakers down.
I may have a new favorite speaker.
Was shocked the bent ribbon one still sounded so good. I'm obviously still going to get it replaced, but not in as much of a hurry now.
Would have to do a side by side to be sure, but maybe not quite as "airy" in the mids and highs as my MartinLogan SL3, but surprisingly, to me anyway, they seem to have a much bigger sweet spot, or at least I could be sitting way off center and while not "magic", I could still hear the other speaker just fine and was still excellent. You can just insert any word used to describe speakers here and they had it - transparency, detail, micro detail layering , texture, etc etc, For my tastes, and my tastes only as everyone likes something different, truly a speaker I can own and not long for anything else.
Not to mention, personally I find them a gorgeous looking speaker
I liked the DQ-12's, but , and I am only speaking for myself and for my tastes, for me those DQ-12's weren't even in the same league as the Apogee, so turned out to be one heck of a trade for me.
and that's with a "bad ribbon !
Can't wait to upgrade the caps as I have read that makes a huge difference.
Don't know if it's true, but read they are actually a fairly efficient speaker and read a few times how you haven't really heard them at their best until you drive them with some valves.
So happens I have a Mingda MC34AB (75wpc/40wpc) that if true, should drive them nicely. I was actually going to sell the amp as all of my speakers are very inefficient and I didn't want to buy speakers just for it, but now there may be one disappointed guy who was showing interest as I'm holding on to it until I put it on the apogees.
Only had them for a day, but for now they get a 3 thumbs up and a must hear speaker in my opinion.
These aren't the minors, but is what mine look like.
