True Sound Works Apogee Diva Ultimate - Any Good?

11-30-13: Rlwainwright
IIRC, the Apogees are a *very* difficult speaker to drive properly. My reading indicates that they can drop as low as 1 ohm at certain frequencies, thus they are very taxing for 99% of the amps out there. Also, they present a very reactive load to the amp. And not very many amps are happy with such a load.

How do you know this, Rlwainwright? Did you own Apogee Divas at any point in your ownership of various audio gear? AFAIK, the Apogee Diva is a much easier load than, say, the Apogee Scintilla 1-ohm version. Here is a review from Stereophile from 1988 that shows an impedance plot (unfortunately no phase plot) but you can see that the Diva's impedance is, for all practical purposes, flat at nearly 4 Ohms. It does dip down lower at 20KHz but the program material power at 20KHz is likely to be very little.
http://www.apogeespeakers.com/reviews/diva_stereophile_august1988.htm

Additionally, they are known to have a *very* small sweet spot and positioning and setup are absolutely critical if one wishes to achieve the best listening experience....

again, may I ask how you know this bit of info??
Thanks.

I am the proud owner of a Duetta Signature for which I rebuilt an external Xover with latest audiophile grade capacitors, resistors and coils. The upgraded Xover made a huge difference in sound quality. I still had the Apogee panel buzz common to all of those speakers who are about 20 years old. I bit the bullet and had these refurbished by Rich Murry.

These speakers are now keepers for life. Bass output is tight, midrange is to die for and imaging is 3D. The only speaker close to it is the ML CLX but lacking the bass content of my Duettas. Rich is a true Apogee artisan and I highly recommend his work. I really think that to beat a refurbished Apogee, you will have to pay at least $25K-$35K for new speakers.

I have owned a pair of Diva Ultimates for about one year. I traveled to Nevada and spent the day with Rich which proved to be a very rewarding experience. We discussed at length his design philosophy. I had previously owned a pair of Duetta Signatures and have heard stock Divas quite some time ago. Prior to hearing the Diva Ultimates i would have chosen the Duettas. Historically there have been many critics who have taken issue with the sonic presentation of the original Divas. Midrange coherence and integration with the film tweeter were problematic as well as bass panel issues. Rich has addressed these areas with great success. Specific redesign and upgrades can be addressed more completely by Rich. Some major changes were the midrange ribbon which is now a pure metal film without the backing, not unlike that found in the Full Range. The crossover had to be completely redesigned, eliminating the transformers. The bass panels now have more powerful and better aligned magnets. The bass impact and definition is quite remarkable, obviating the need for my JL 112 in my case. With all due respect the the Duetta Sig, the Diva Ultimate is indeed a significant sonic improvement. The only reason I would consider the Duetta would be a smaller listening room, where the benefits of the Diva would not be fully realized. A step up from the Diva Ultimate is the Full Range. Of course there is another camp of Apogee adherents who embrace the Scintilla. That is a very polarizing subject. Some elevate it above all others. Many feel the sound is unique and flawed due to phase anomalies in the midrange band that colors the presentation significantly. I have not heard it so i cannot offer a personal opinion one way or another. I have heard the ML CLX and do not feel that it is in same class as the Diva Ultimate. I listen mostly to Classical, chamber and Jazz. I am fortunate to live in an area where i can attend world class performances.

As an aside i have built some custom horns based on a JBL 375 with aftermarket beryllium diaphragms. I actually prefer this system with vintage jazz recordings from the the 60's. The immediacy is reminiscent of my visits to many jazz clubs in New York and San Francisco. My point is that no one speaker system is perfect for all occasions. But the Diva Ultimates comes pretty close.

Pass Labs X350.5 and Modulus 3B pre-amp. ( Evolution Acoustics MMMicroOne and Audio Physic Virgo III )

I have owned both Divas and Full Ranges modified and re-conditioned by TSW. The Divas were originally bi-amped, and then, at Rich's suggestion, I used his passive crossover and single amped them--he was right, they were better that way. I used both tube and solid state amps, and preferred the tubes, and they had no trouble driving the Divas, so rumors about a nasty impedance curve likely are not true.
I now have the Full Ranges. Again, Rich has modified the crossover, so it is passive, and the speakers can be driven by a single amp. I am using them with ARC VT 150SEs, and do not find the combination lacking in any way. Rich is currently modifying the crossover for me (he called me to let me know that he had come up with an improvement) and I assume, as has been the case with all his upgrades, that the performance increase will be noticeable.

Many thanks for the additional responses to my post. Based on the last two responses I am now convinced TSW Diva Ultimate’s are the way I want to go eventually. Besides, they just look beautiful (IMHO) and make a statement about how serious we take our HiFi!