Apogees are a very tough act to follow, as obviously you appreciate.
Well since I'm a SoundLab dealer, my suggestion will be pretty predictable. I do count a few former Apogee owners among my customers.
Depending on the layout of your room, it's possible that the relatively new Majestic might better serve you, or its shorter counterpart the M-1PX. These models have a narrower pattern than the U-1/M-1/A-1, which increases efficiency (by about 6 dB) but reduces sweet spot width. If your room is (relatively speaking) long and narrow the new geometry would work well, but if your room is close to squarish then the older, wider pattern geometry would probably make more sense. If you can use the new higher-efficiency, narrow (45-degree instead of 90-degree) pattern SoundLabs, that would be my suggestion for a succesor to the Divas in a home theater system.
Now I'm not saying they'll outperform the Wilsons or Wegg3s at the things those systems do well, but staying within the realm of what the Apogees do well the SoundLabs are worthy contenders.
If you have any questions give me a holler. Don't worry, I'm not a pushy rah-rah salesman type.
Best of luck to you in your quest - those are tough shoes to fill!
Duke LeJeune
AudioKinesis
Well since I'm a SoundLab dealer, my suggestion will be pretty predictable. I do count a few former Apogee owners among my customers.
Depending on the layout of your room, it's possible that the relatively new Majestic might better serve you, or its shorter counterpart the M-1PX. These models have a narrower pattern than the U-1/M-1/A-1, which increases efficiency (by about 6 dB) but reduces sweet spot width. If your room is (relatively speaking) long and narrow the new geometry would work well, but if your room is close to squarish then the older, wider pattern geometry would probably make more sense. If you can use the new higher-efficiency, narrow (45-degree instead of 90-degree) pattern SoundLabs, that would be my suggestion for a succesor to the Divas in a home theater system.
Now I'm not saying they'll outperform the Wilsons or Wegg3s at the things those systems do well, but staying within the realm of what the Apogees do well the SoundLabs are worthy contenders.
If you have any questions give me a holler. Don't worry, I'm not a pushy rah-rah salesman type.
Best of luck to you in your quest - those are tough shoes to fill!
Duke LeJeune
AudioKinesis