Visit to Henk van der Hoeven -- Apogee Acoustics Re-builder/Restorer

[PoorBoy]

Hi All
Fascinating forum

apologies if this is in the wrong thread so and Mod, please just move if required.
Some 35 years or so after falling in love with a picture of some Scintillas I have come in to possession of a pair of Duetta Sigs. They were a bargain, or I would never have managed them. All my stuff is second hand and the result of decades of fortuitous purchasing. I am sure I am not alone here.

anyway, they sound fantastic. I had my other half come in with eyes closed and listen because well, they are large. I told her I wanted to play with them for a few months, ease them in to the house. Eek. She has told me that I will leave the house in a box before the speakers leave the house so that’s positive.

which brings me to my question. They are black and the coating is peeling a bit. Does anyone have a 3D file I can throw at a cutting machine or shoukd I risk removing the fronts and entrusting them to a spray company. If the latter, how easy is removal? Any tips? Any recommendations on finishing?

thank you all again for your time.

Ade

 

[Zero000]

Email info@reality-audio.com and ask Jon if he has what you want.

My covers where done at a car spray shop with excellent results. For both pairs of Duettas I have owned. My current covers were made from scratch by Jon and are much thicker than the originals. But they fit on in a completely different way using a lot of hex bolts.

If I remember correctly you have to get the speaker off the stands to remove the covers on the original design, and then undo the fixings at the bottom of the cover and pull from the bottom upwards.

The finish will depend on how well you prepare your old covers before giving them to a paint shop.

Apogee weren't that good at geometry and it may be that covers made for some Duettas won't fit on others that well.

 

[christoph]

Hi All
Fascinating forum

apologies if this is in the wrong thread so and Mod, please just move if required.
Some 35 years or so after falling in love with a picture of some Scintillas I have come in to possession of a pair of Duetta Sigs. They were a bargain, or I would never have managed them. All my stuff is second hand and the result of decades of fortuitous purchasing. I am sure I am not alone here.

anyway, they sound fantastic. I had my other half come in with eyes closed and listen because well, they are large. I told her I wanted to play with them for a few months, ease them in to the house. Eek. She has told me that I will leave the house in a box before the speakers leave the house so that’s positive.

which brings me to my question. They are black and the coating is peeling a bit. Does anyone have a 3D file I can throw at a cutting machine or shoukd I risk removing the fronts and entrusting them to a spray company. If the latter, how easy is removal? Any tips? Any recommendations on finishing?

thank you all again for your time.

Ade

Where are you located?
There are Apogee certified installers around the world you should/could ask...

 

[Zero000]

I was gonna ask that Christoph but for what he wants it doesn't matter. Unless he wants to pay much more.

Jon will answer.

 

[Big Dog RJ]

When I had the Diva's, can't recall having a peeling issue with the paint coating or anything, other than ribbon elements failing one after the other in serious tropical climes. Both Apogee & Maggie reps at the time wrote apologies but couldn't really solve the problem, until I managed to get local techies who had experience with panel type speakers. Speaking of panels, electro-stats were even worse off, lasting only a few months, half a year the most.

Anyway, if PB is having a peeling issue, I'm sure this is a pretty simple fix as it doesn't involve ribbon elements, I hope...

I would suggest trying to get hold of a reputable tech service mob who are well versed with such projects, buffing, paints and refurbs that sort of thing. I'm sure they'll be able to do the job.

Speaking of finishes, it's nice to have the ML outfit provide not one but two bottles of special grade orange furniture oil with each shipping carton the CLX's arrived in. To be applied only twice a year the most, the finish is stunning! This furniture oil will last a lifetime. The grain at a glace or viewed directly over light is supremely beautiful. No wonder they charge 5-6 grand more depending on the finish.

I'm sure PB, you'll be able to find the right people for the job. Till then enjoy those fine tunes through those wonderful Apogee's.
Cheers & big woof! RJ

 

[morricab]

When I had the Diva's, can't recall having a peeling issue with the paint coating or anything, other than ribbon elements failing one after the other in serious tropical climes. Both Apogee & Maggie reps at the time wrote apologies but couldn't really solve the problem, until I managed to get local techies who had experience with panel type speakers. Speaking of panels, electro-stats were even worse off, lasting only a few months, half a year the most.

Anyway, if PB is having a peeling issue, I'm sure this is a pretty simple fix as it doesn't involve ribbon elements, I hope...

I would suggest trying to get hold of a reputable tech service mob who are well versed with such projects, buffing, paints and refurbs that sort of thing. I'm sure they'll be able to do the job.

Speaking of finishes, it's nice to have the ML outfit provide not one but two bottles of special grade orange furniture oil with each shipping carton the CLX's arrived in. To be applied only twice a year the most, the finish is stunning! This furniture oil will last a lifetime. The grain at a glace or viewed directly over light is supremely beautiful. No wonder they charge 5-6 grand more depending on the finish.

I'm sure PB, you'll be able to find the right people for the job. Till then enjoy those fine tunes through those wonderful Apogee's.
Cheers & big woof! RJ

Do you smoke? Live by the sea? I have had numerous planar speakers (including quite old Apogee Caliper Signatures and very old Acoustat and STAX electrostats) and none of them died, delaminated or otherwise failed on me. The oldest Acoustats were 30+ years old and worked perfectly (matched to within 1db even over a wide frequency range).

 

[Big Dog RJ]

Ah, looks like I've confoosed the plot.

No Morricab, don't smoke... cigars once in while mostly outside, live near the sea, well it's a tropical island! I didn't specify the location, heavy heavy downpours especially during the monsoons. Mosquito ridden tropics, where the mossies are like aliens, bloody intelligent and blood suckers. They'll give you all the nasties you can imagine, including dengue fever which my daughter had when she was just three years old. Boy was that a scare! She was in hospital for nearly a whole month.

I think no matter what I did for the room or house, air conditioning, carpets or whatever material, it was always damp. Biasing 16 output tubes with a multimeter was not fun either. It was like an eight hour surgery in the heat. Tropics, mossies biting and tubes generating heat directly onto your forehead whiles trying to bias and get that milli-volt rating accurate... not fun at all. Usually just one monoblock would take me half an hour, so biasing two would take about an hour. Plus our voltage was crappo. Extreme variations in AC mains reliability, no point talking about.
Average humidity after a heavy downpour could easily reach 90% and above. 100% is basically water and we were sitting around 93-95% on certain days. Nothing would survive, everything tarnishes, and begins to corrode. The wiring on the Maggie's and Apo's turned green at one point.
Cabinets with veneers would just peel off... warped cabinets. This was about the time nearly every brand that we carried, the HQ's would reply to us claiming that their products weren't "tropicalised." Go figure!

Anyway, at the end of the day, we sold off the business, closed shop, and I resigned from my main company, and we migrated to Aus. So for your info this is in Colombo's highest tropical climates. You need to visit to understand the amounts you can sweat by just doing 10 push-ups... We now live in Melbourne, hot and dry and great for hifi! Not to mention the static buildup which is another issue... but for that I've got a solution. The Furutech Destat III.
Plus in Melbourne no mossies! None of those intelligent alien looking ones. They're pretty dumb over here, very easy to squash. However, in cmb they're entirely a different species.

Another chap had AG horns, lasted quite a while until the jumpers started corrosion, another chap had Quads, absolute disaster. The only speakers that out lasted the lot were my personal trusted Infinity's, both the IRS 1B's and the Renaissance 90's. Solid timbre and materials no veneers, no inadequate parts although they were highly coloured sound. This is where I replace 16 ribbon tweeter elements on various Maggie's that we sold. They were fantastic vfm but ribbons just didn't last in harsh tropical weather. No chance!

Unless you were super rich and ran your air conditioning 24/7 then perhaps you could tolerate the tropical side of things but other than that, forget it!

Cheers to the tropics and those darn mossies!
RJ

 

[Big Dog RJ]

Poorboy (PB), I hope you find a good place or tech / diy outfit that can restore the finish on your Apogee's. I also truly hope it's only the outer edges and materials you're having issues with. Even then there are plenty of very knowledgeable people who are passionate about Apogee refurbs and will make any older Apo's look absolutely stunning! It's just a matter of gaining access to them.

Cheers, and enjoy those fine tunes.
Best, RJ

 

[PoorBoy]

Poorboy (PB), I hope you find a good place or tech / diy outfit that can restore the finish on your Apogee's. I also truly hope it's only the outer edges and materials you're having issues with. Even then there are plenty of very knowledgeable people who are passionate about Apogee refurbs and will make any older Apo's look absolutely stunning! It's just a matter of gaining access to them.

Cheers, and enjoy those fine tunes.
Best, RJ

Thank you all so much.

yes it is only the outer. The anthracite coating has come away a little in places. It is not unsightly and can live with it. The thought of having them in piano finish dark blue or some such is very appealing.

this was also why I was enquiring about cutting a new pair of surrounds in preference to coating the originals.

maybe this is foolish.
I shall ask Jon (thank you) but I feel it unlikely he will provide a CAM file as this seems to be his business! You never know, tho, he may lure me in to an actual spend.

I will post a pic of the surrounds for you to mock .
thank you again

PB

 

[Zero000]

PB

You might like this colour. I had my first pair done in the same colour as my Merc.

Jon probably still has the paint code I pulled from my car door.

Justin

https://www.martinloganowners.com/attachments/in-crates-jpg.12029/

 

[PoorBoy]

PB

You might like this colour. I had my first pair done in the same colour as my Merc.

Jon probably still has the paint code I pulled from my car door.

Justin

https://www.martinloganowners.com/attachments/in-crates-jpg.12029/

Gosh

 

[Big Dog RJ]

Very nice Justin (user211).
Those colours / type of finish were never readily available during the hey day. They had to be specially prepared and ordered and would take months... sometimes not even happen. Not sure if it was something specific for the Sth East Asian region but it was so difficult to get custom finishes. Anyway, it's certainly nice to see the Apogee restorers capable of a fine job now, especially at this standard. It's a marvellous thing!

Cheers, and enjoy those fine tunes!
From your Apo's and the Merc
RJ

 

[Zero000]

Very nice Justin (user211).
Those colours / type of finish were never readily available during the hey day. They had to be specially prepared and ordered and would take months... sometimes not even happen. Not sure if it was something specific for the Sth East Asian region but it was so difficult to get custom finishes. Anyway, it's certainly nice to see the Apogee restorers capable of a fine job now, especially at this standard. It's a marvellous thing!

Cheers, and enjoy those fine tunes!
From your Apo's and the Merc
RJ

RJ,

That was many years ago.

They were sweet, but the sugar tastes much better now

Justin.