Wow, Sean, I have been an Apogee nut for nearly twenty years, and I have never heard of Apogee mods... home remedy tweaks, yes.
My last speakers were Sigs. Awesome. |
Aragons will drive Apogees. Aragons will drive virtually anything but thats really not a secret. |
Muralman1
Have you ever tried a 1 ohm load with the palladiums..
The head sinks are "v" grooved in the center and rather effective. As differential monoblocks, you have only one channel per chassis to cool... Granted the Krell ksa's have alot more Visible heat sinks, I have run most every kind of speaker load with the palladiums with no failure in the short term and no signs of fatigue.
All due respect,
Joe
Custom Audio LLC |
There was a guy here on Audiogon that was running Perreaux PMF-2150's in bridged mode to drive Apogee's. I can't remember who it was, but that is one helluva testimony to the ruggedness / reliability of the Perreaux. In bridged mode, the amps were seeing somewhere around half an ohm (.5 ohms) !!!
As a side note, my Perreaux 3150's have no problem driving very low impedances. Much of this has to do with the heavy gauge output inductor that Perreaux uses. Not only does the amp maintain a low output impedance as power is increased*, it can pass more current on demand as needed without any type of restriction. That's why these amps, when running properly, have great bass impact. Most amps have relatively scrawny output inductors, so they lack the capacity to pass enough current as needed. The end result is a lack of control as impedances are reduced and a reduction in "slam" at any impedance.
Other than that, the two channel Sunfire Signature will drive Apogee's with no problem. Sunfire even has a specific set of "factory mods" that they do for Apogee's. I've had this done to my Signature and it noticeably increased the bass impact. One of the reasons for better bass response ? They install larger output inductors to pass more current : ) Sean
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* damping factor varies with the dynamic load and output levels that the amps sees and responds to. Many "techs" & "engineers" will say i'm off my rocker, so believe whom you want. |
I have no quarrel with chunky class A amps with huge heat sinks being able to run a 1 ohm load. Classe amps of that descriptin do power the Scintilla well. But that does not mean they have the best synergy with the Scintilla. It may have been true a dozen years ago. If the Pass X600 wasn't around, I would have thought seriously about the Classe.. |
The Apogee Scintilla's (which I believe you're referring to) were most often mated with Classe Audio amps. Jason Bloom and David Reich had a close working relationship; I'd go so far as to say they voiced their stuff for the best synergy. The pure "class A" Classe audio amplifiers that mated with the Scintilla's were the DR-3 (sometimes in pairs) and more appropriately the DR-VHC amps. Gobs of current. I know all this to be accurate; email me if you'd like to know more. Best, Jeff |
You may find that the Zero Autoformer useful with low impedence speakers. The "Zero's" multiply the speakers' impedence allowing an easier load for your amp. I use them very successfully with Audio Research tube amps and Soundlabs. The designer recommends caution when using the Zero's with certain SS amps with excess offset voltage (details are in the literature) Check out the website for more information: www.ZEROimpedence.com. |
No they won't. There is no reason why they should have to.
There is only one 1 ohm speaker in existance, and precious few of those. No amp builder is making amps for the Scintilla. The Aragon just doesn't have the heat sinks to do the job. |
The Aragon Palladiums I have will drive a 1 ohm load all day long and run at 1 kilowatt... A bargain at 3 grand!!
Best of luck..
by the way, skip the adcom for a 1 ohm load...
Distortion city!!
Happy listening,
Joe
Custom Audio LLC |
Lazarus h1a hybrid amps in mono mode can easily drive Scintillas without breaking a sweat. |
Scintillas? Seadogsl, how much money do you want to spend? Old krells would be your cheapest way out, but if you want to get the best out the best speaker in the world (IMO), then the Pass Labs X600 monos are unrivaled (IMO). Old Krells probably will have maintenace problems. Pass X600 amps are still relatively new, and are fine used. Expect to pay approximately $7000 for used ones (still a lot cheaper than Gryphon.)
See me and the boys + one girl at:
http://audioworld.com/cgi-bin/sw/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Apogee+Acoustics+Users+Group&number=1 |
My Krell Ksa-250 will drive a 1 ohm load, it's rated at 2000 watts per channel@1 ohm. As a matter of fact I am looking for a pair of large Apogees in the near future, I have a pair of small Apogees now and have caught the Apogee bug it seems.
Dave |
I had a KSA100 for a while but it blew transistors so I got rid of it. |
The InnerSound ESL amp will drive one-ohm loads comfortably, sounds very good, and has plenty of power and punch... |
certainly Innersound ESL amps...Roger designed them especially for electrostatic speakers.... |
McIntosh has performance graphs for most of its recent amps that show total stability at 1 ohm.
However, it also depends on the volume you wish to listen at since the power is to the square of voltage (P=V^2/R). Most amps will do it at low volume but then they will either overheat (surprising how many designs are inadequately cooled) or clip heavily at higher levels. It's hard to answer your question directly. I don't know of any amps that will rock hard at 1 ohm for extended periods. Need to look at the impedance graph of your speakers because the minimum may only happen at one point. |
The older Krells (KSA 80, 100, 200 and References, as well as their monoblock versions) were about your only choice back when Apogee was in business, a major reason they used to be demo'd together. Would expect them to still sound good as a combo. Don't know what's available now, but I'd expect a pure class A design might fill the bill (Gryphon?). You might want to check the archives for a link to the Apogee users group website, I'm sure they'd have plenty of suggestions. |
I am using a Pass Labs X-250 to drive MartinLogan Aerius i's, which drop to 1.2ohms at 20Khz fully driven.
Though it does spike the built-in power meter pretty hard on heavy treble transitions, the amp NEVER sounds stressed, and seems to be designed to shrug off this kind of load. If anything, these speakers are now the weak-point of my system - not the amp.
Standard Disclaimer:
YMMV - This is only my personal experience - I don't know everything - please do not flame me. |
Some of the Adcoms are suppose to...but I would try a professional amp like Peavey,Crown,and the like .These are designed to handle the tough ohm loads and do it all day!
Good Luck! |
