New refurbished Apogee Diva

[caliaripaolo]

Great speaker, great room and environment......Enjoy....

Cheers....

Thank you
yeah i'm really enjoying them.
I've never listened to my favorite tunes like this, the music flows smoothly and without any fatigue.
Sense of truth regardless of the goodness of recording.

 

[caliaripaolo]

Congratulations, what an amazing room!

Thank you.
Contrary to what I thought, the room immediately welcomed the Diva without problems. I followed the advice of the Apogee’s user manual.

 

[Zero000]

Thank you
I really love them and I do not understand why can be hated.
they do nothing but bring out the goodness of the upstream chain, if any.

They just fill me with hate when listening to obviously flawed recordings. It isn't the speaker's fault. It's the person that made it public.

Sure, for rare recordings that's really understandable and I get it. For public high volume artists promoting stuff that just sounds way off balanced - well. Sometimes it works, and sometimes with me it just breads pure contempt.

 

[Zero000]

If you find long term you really do like them, get them made out of good stuff.

https://www.celanese.com/products/hostaform-celcon-pom-acetal-copolymer/

If Henk really is any good he will know all about it. I wonder if he does...

After that post he's probably an expert now

LOL.

My father was UK director of sales of Amcel. Long gone now, unfortunately.

 

[caliaripaolo]

Till now the Diva are on wheels in order to move them easily for correct positioning. When it will be found, I will arrange them on spikes. Do any of you use special tips or those provided?

 

[Zero000]

Till now the Diva are on wheels in order to move them easily for correct positioning. When it will be found, I will arrange them on spikes. Do any of you use special tips or those provided?

I wouldn't worry too much about spikes.

Structural integrity is where it is at and where you will get the most gains.

Start to think about half inch to one inch thick aluminium stands, preferably the latter, rising at least two thirds or at least half the way back up the loudspeaker. Bolted into much wider and longer bases with respect to front to back movement.

Get the rear wall of the speaker at least twice as thick as Apogee originally made them. Try and get the wood impregnated with a solid metal base frame structure that just says these MOFOs are just not fucking moving.

In other words, let the diaphragm move in an environment that doesn't.

 

[caliaripaolo]

I wouldn't worry too much about spikes.

Structural integrity is where it is at and where you will get the most gains.

Start to think about half inch to one inch thick aluminium stands, preferably the latter, rising at least two thirds or at least half the way back up the loudspeaker. Bolted into much wider and longer bases with respect to front to back movement.

Get the rear wall of the speaker at least twice as thick as Apogee originally made them. Try and get the wood impregnated with a solid metal base frame structure that just says these MOFOs are just not fucking moving.

In other words, let the diaphragm move in an environment that doesn't.

thank you,
before reading your reply, I was replacing the wheels with Soundcare Superspikes.



Mid-high are more open and harmonical, bass are more deeper. Thus allowing me to increment the distance between the tweeters (more than 8' ), maintaining the listening position distance at approximately 12'.

 

[caliaripaolo]

however, these speakers continue to impress me for the dynamic contrasts, for the size and depth of the soundstage.
The sound is uniform, coherent, integrated in each of its harmonic components, not to mention of full body of orchestral tracks.
I must say that the Tympani I have in the office seem more transparent in the higher treble, but the source is completely different (here in the office I use master tapes on Telefunken M15), but at the same time the Diva are definitely more natural in that frequency range.

 

[caliaripaolo]

here some other pictures of the room layout:

 

[Bobvin]

here some other pictures of the room layout:

View attachment 101722


View attachment 101723

Wow! Your room looks amazing. What a great place to hang and listen. Bravo!

 

[caliaripaolo]

Wow! Your room looks amazing. What a great place to hang and listen. Bravo!

thank you.
I see in your signature you have a great system. Alsyvox Botticelli I guess sounds amazing.

 

[thomask]

Your nice system remind me of my old memory.

34 years ago, I had been impressed with Diva driven by Krell KSA 250 at dealer's showroom.

But I could not afford it at that time.

Thus I had settled with Duetta Sig which I had used until 1998.

 

[caliaripaolo]

Your nice system remind me of my old memory.

34 years ago, I had been impressed with Diva driven by Krell KSA 250 at dealer's showroom.

But I could not afford it at that time.

Thus I had settled with Duetta Sig which I had used until 1998.

Diva are still a modern project and comparing to the insane pricing of today's speakers, seems a bargain.
integration with Totaldac-Soulution chain is perfect. Treble air and soundstage depth have a connection with the bass quality and depth, givin an uniform music flow which never exceeds.

 

[caliaripaolo]

recorded with a simple iphone.
just to give you an idea of Diva.

 

[Zero000]

recorded with a simple iphone.
just to give you an idea of Diva.

Next stop, full range.

 

[Zero000]

Actually, that's not such a bad idea. I am almost considering it

In a different way to the original, though. I think I like the idea of an extended Duetta. Maybe a foot and a half bigger. I just like the proportions of Duetta. Diva is just so skinny. Too skinny to my mind to hack decent bass.

That said, what do I know?

Enjoy what you have. But please, listen to what I have said. It's imperative. There are very, very few people in the world who have speakers that are as good. Really, even in 2023.

 

[caliaripaolo]

Actually, that's not such a bad idea. I am almost considering it

In a different way to the original, though. I think I like the idea of an extended Duetta. Maybe a foot and a half bigger. I just like the proportions of Duetta. Diva is just so skinny. Too skinny to my mind to hack decent bass.

That said, what do I know?

Enjoy what you have. But please, listen to what I have said. It's imperative. There are very, very few people in the world who have speakers that are as good. Really, even in 2023.

DIVA skinny???
I do not think they are skinny, if you see the woofer area is almost the same of Full Range.


Picture taken by the https://www.audioantiquary.com/en-us/apogee-full-range-fully-restored/

and I can assure you that the Divas have more than decent bass. It all depends by the quality of the amplification.

 

[christoph]

DIVA skinny???
I do not think they are skinny, if you see the woofer area is almost the same of Full Range.

View attachment 102867
Picture taken by the https://www.audioantiquary.com/en-us/apogee-full-range-fully-restored/

and I can assure you that the Divas have more than decent bass. It all depends by the quality of the amplification.

I'm pretty confident that the FRs have "invisible" Acryl wings.
A visual trick from Henk the Apogee Master to make the FRs look way slimmer than they actually are

Wow, I really love the color scheme on those FRs (that I "invented" for my ex-Scintillas )

 

[Zero000]

I reckon Henk made the best pair (visually, never heard them) of Full Range on the planet.

I haven't a link to post. I could probably dig one or two out if they still out there on the Intertwits.

But even taking a pair of those on is brave.

 

[bonzo75]

This was my thread showing Henk’s apogee full range


Thread 'Apogee Full range'
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/threads/apogee-full-range.19104/

This was on Henk’s grands

Thread 'What a week - concertgebouw, Mahler, Rattle, koda, neolith, apogee grands!'
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...hler-rattle-koda-neolith-apogee-grands.20539/

these two on Henk’s scintilla as commissioned by Christoph. In retrospect, following the grands, the scintilla was the best, because it is smaller, more coherent than the full range, and serious bass. The FR has more bass, but is quite complex to operate. The scintilla has the pure ribbon of the FR so midrange quality is excellent

Thread 'Visit to Christoph: Odeon horns, Kronzilla SX, Aries Cerat Diana, Apogee Scinitilla'
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...sx-aries-cerat-diana-apogee-scinitilla.22919/


Thread 'Zero Distortion: Apogee Duetta, Scintilla, and tussle with horns'
https://www.whatsbestforum.com/thre...duetta-scintilla-and-tussle-with-horns.22956/