Apogee vs Soundlab


Which speaker is better: Apogee or Soundlab and why? Which is superior technically speaking: fullrange ribbon or fullrange electrostatic speaker and why?
Disclaimer: It is not my intention to start a fullrange ribbon vs fullrange electrostatic war. I just want to hear your opinions.

Chris
dazzdax

Showing 2 responses by scousepasty

I had Apogee Divas many years ago and found them the most difficult speakers to drive and maintain, that I have ever owned and too big for most rooms to get a decent soundstage. I finally traded them for Quad ELS 63's and Gradient SW63 Subs. which were superb & lived with me until I moved house and finally got a big dedicated room.
I now have Sound Lab U1-PX's with which I initially had some problems driving with ARC Ref 210,s. I took some advice & now traded and have ARC 610T's.
I am home back off an extended business trip in a couple of weeks and hope to get it all together and running. Will post my impressions then.
Dazzdax, living in the UK its very difficult to find dealers with Sound Labs and none to listen to with different tube amps, and as I have had ARC tube amps for many years I thought that the new 210's would be a good match. I was wrong!
They don't have the reserve of output power in the new transformers to keep up with the U1's and kept clipping and the bass response was slow.
After the fact, I contacted a couple of SoundLab dealers in the USA and they suggested several different makes of amps, both SS & Tube, with which they and customers had satisfactory experiences. I don't think either one had tried the 210's with them but both thought it was not a good match.
The Apogees might - or rather should be - more reliable these days with all the improvements and mods that have come along, but back then I couldn't afford the repairs or the Krell amps to drive them.