Visit to Henk van der Hoeven -- Apogee Acoustics Re-builder/Restorer
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Graz - APOGEE ACOUSTICS
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astute
The new Apogee Diva A9 is a nice tube friendly load, nominal 4, absolute lowest 2.64, highest 6.8, and sounds like a single driver. I have yet to hear the Ayons but in theory they will be a perfect match...Graz
astute
Graz
Hm.
I had the Ayons on my Duettas. They kept shutting down on bass transients.
Jon had the same pair on Divas. They kept shutting down.
I spoke to the Ayon tech about it at Munich. He basically had nothing to say.
On the 4 Ohm tap in pentode mode they just might survive. But it is marginal.
Unless of course the amps were faulty. Which isn't impossible. But they self test on each boot up and they didn't ever fail that.
Graz - APOGEE ACOUSTICS
Active Member
Yes. Or 300. They are the Ayon Orthos XS. They shut down in triode mode, not pentode. They were mine, I wanted to try them on duettas so bought them as shipped to Justin. I didn't like what they did so sold them. SS is the only way to go with apogees, and hybrids like lamm, no matter how many times brad posts otherwise. I also heard the AR 250 on the divas, hopeless
Graz - APOGEE ACOUSTICS
Active Member
I have visited Joel, who wrote that review and is a member of this forum. He was the one who suggested the Ayon so I bought it. His compares apart from vivid were done on Maggie 20.7
I had it for around three months Graz.
It is a nice sounding amp. I didn't feel compelled enough to buy it though on SQ terms and especially with the usability issue in triode mode.
Bob Marley's Natural Mystic was a real torture test for it.
It is a nice sounding amp. I didn't feel compelled enough to buy it though on SQ terms and especially with the usability issue in triode mode.
Bob Marley's Natural Mystic was a real torture test for it.
Graz - APOGEE ACOUSTICS
Active Member
That is a big thing - and it's good that you have mentioned this. The taps are there for good reason, and the 4 ohm tap with the generally benign Duetta Sig load and efficiency would have produced better results for certain in a happy range where the amp would be sounding it's best and still able to drive the speaker to full power with headroom to spare. On a Duetta Signature with standard xover parts, and an incorrect 8 ohm tap setting on most valve amps, the amp would see less than 1.5 ohms in places, not what the designers would want!
4 ohms is the ideal tap for the Duetta Signatures, Divas (classic) also.
The new Diva A9's are as flat an impedance plot as I have seen on a 3-way panel, near perfect 4 ohms for most of the range, and all of the high current sections. With the first client's amp being a high powered valve design absolute crossover refinement pas paramount. The crossover for this has had a considerable amount of time and simulation followed up with real world testing especially to work on the load/efficiency aspect of design, enjoyable. Final design was #215
4 ohms is the ideal tap for the Duetta Signatures, Divas (classic) also.
The new Diva A9's are as flat an impedance plot as I have seen on a 3-way panel, near perfect 4 ohms for most of the range, and all of the high current sections. With the first client's amp being a high powered valve design absolute crossover refinement pas paramount. The crossover for this has had a considerable amount of time and simulation followed up with real world testing especially to work on the load/efficiency aspect of design, enjoyable. Final design was #215
Well as the owner should discover, the Ayon sounds best running in pentode mode anyway, at least it did driving Duettas.
I fired it up a lot whilst I had it and enjoyed it.
I just hope he isn't too disappointed about not being able to really enjoy triode mode.
Those A9s. Would love to hear them without the expense of a flight to Brisbane!
I fired it up a lot whilst I had it and enjoyed it.
I just hope he isn't too disappointed about not being able to really enjoy triode mode.
Those A9s. Would love to hear them without the expense of a flight to Brisbane!
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Graz - APOGEE ACOUSTICS
Active Member
A trip to the Sunshine Coast doesn't need ulterior motives of audio believe me!! And is comparable to the shipping cost of speakers, backed up with several resorts close by!! I have met many clients this way, enjoyable. Making speakers for a person is better than for stock to be sold.
Apogee Diva A9. Like all our metal chassis speakers, a lot goes into them. Strictly for Apogee experienced connoisseurs who know what they like and want more or most of it. Following typical industry markup they would cost 3x their price, and that is not fair for the clients. Being a metal chassis they are very heavy (500+kg per pair), and they require a large room, not something to swap in and out for the odd demo. The likelihood of dealers in the UK having these on hand for the odd pair per year sale is near zero, an Installer demo possible but not negotiated at present.
Such speakers would never be med/mass production, so few will hear them, fewer will own them. Perfect for our clients, at that stage of client they are way past the dealer-library game, and understand there is no room full of boxes for sale for a low-ball. Commissioned art, built to order. They don't want something bought off of a review-de-jour. They trust their ears, and have confidence in our work and their ears. Speakers we make have an exceptionally high retention rate, they have an effect of ending the owners past upgrade habit - as intended : )
Apogee Diva A9. Like all our metal chassis speakers, a lot goes into them. Strictly for Apogee experienced connoisseurs who know what they like and want more or most of it. Following typical industry markup they would cost 3x their price, and that is not fair for the clients. Being a metal chassis they are very heavy (500+kg per pair), and they require a large room, not something to swap in and out for the odd demo. The likelihood of dealers in the UK having these on hand for the odd pair per year sale is near zero, an Installer demo possible but not negotiated at present.
Such speakers would never be med/mass production, so few will hear them, fewer will own them. Perfect for our clients, at that stage of client they are way past the dealer-library game, and understand there is no room full of boxes for sale for a low-ball. Commissioned art, built to order. They don't want something bought off of a review-de-jour. They trust their ears, and have confidence in our work and their ears. Speakers we make have an exceptionally high retention rate, they have an effect of ending the owners past upgrade habit - as intended : )
On the Ayon the difference in purity of tone for classical instruments between triode and pentode was quite large, the pentode was nowhere as good in that respect and made it less enjoyable despite the ability to drive more than the triode. This was not the case when I compared the absolare integrated in triode and pentode mode on another speaker. While the pentode mode did not have the same purity, the difference was not that high and the greater drive made it more enjoyable.
So this amp would be suitable for people with very versatile music tastes:
You have the finesse for singer-songwriter, "girl with guitar", small classic ensembles and stuff like that in Triode mode
and you have the heft for electronic music and full throttle all in big Symphony in Pentode mode.
So this amp would be suitable for people with very versatile music tastes:
You have the finesse for singer-songwriter, "girl with guitar", small classic ensembles and stuff like that in Triode mode
and you have the heft for electronic music and full throttle all in big Symphony in Pentode mode.
Yes but then I wanted the symphony without the loss in purity. The loss of purity is a no go. Flexible is good only if various options presented are good, not if neither option cuts it properly
Hi Graz
Those speakers sound extremely interesting, congrats!
I have one naive question, though:
Will the delicate ribbons and panels be even better protected from being touched than the later orignal ones with that "bugscreen"?
I'm still a huge Apogee fan
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