In 1998 I finally gave up on repairing the buzz on one of my Apogee Stages & traded for Aerial 10Ts (later Wilson WP6s, Piega P10s & now Kharma 3.2FEs that I am pretty happy with & will keep for the long haul). I still have a longing for the Apogees, which somehow had a liveness & a natural portrayal of voices that I have never heard duplicated. I listened to a few planars (various Martin Logans, Quad 988s, Innersounds) and found them all kind of queasy sounding compared to the Apogee sound I remember. (Perhaps VMPS or Maggie fans can chime in about faithful voice reproduction like Apogees, as I have not heard them.) Plus, the Apogees were driven by very modest equipment (Aragon 8008 amp, Threshold T3 pre, CAL audio CDP, Audioquest Indigo/Topaz cables.) It has taken an EMM DCC2/SACD1000 to approach that "live-you are there" feeling of the Apogees. Maybe it's a rose-colored-glasses memory, but they are like a long lost love.
