Best Amp to drive my Apogee Stages?

My only 1 issue with my only listening experience with THE Apogee was the way it highlighted the flaws in every recording I listened to. It was so defined that I could not play any of todays music due to the limited digital range of the recordings. Some were worse than others, but it made me realize how important the recording process is when you are any kind of Audiophile. I really consider myself an audio enthusiast: meaning just a guy who loves listening to any genre of music, but not very technical at the same time. But BOY, when I heard a good recording nothing could touch what I had as a reference before that experience.

As far as my Stages, I have only driven them with my Krell KAV-300i so far. I can't wait to experience them with an amplifier that matches them correctly. I sure do know what you are referring to with the vocals. They are magic for sure.

By the way what do you drive the Fullrange with? It seems like you need some heavy duty fire power for those.

-LitL

LitL: You made another very important point, that is a truly outstanding and revealing system can expose all the drawbacks of a poor recording. That is the case with THE Apogee. I fully concur. So the solution is do not play poor recording on it!! Garbage in, garbage out. The speaker is so ruthless that it conceals nothing. On top of that if your electronics is also of the same calibre, you are asking for more trouble,

The Stage in contrast is more forgiving, which can be a blessing sometimes. Glad to know you also own Stages. By the way, I have also listened to the Stage with a Krell KSA-100 for quite some time and boy do they sound good with a Krell also.

My fullrange is driven by all tubes. Yeap, all tubes. To my knowlege I am the only person on the planet who is driving this speaker with all tubes. Right now the system is bi-amped with TRL GT-800 at the bottom and TRL GT-400 at the top, collectively using 144 tubes.

My system is given here at A'gon:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vaslt&1066703453

See details.

Any of the Evolutions from Krell should do the job.

Hey Gallant_diva. 144 tubes must light up (and warm up) your listening room quite well. That is amazing and fun. My Dad worked for Ampex back in the 60's, but he went to solid state when he bought his Apogee Studio Array back in the mid 90's (when those were the latest from Jason Bloom). He had never heard either the Fullrange nor the Divas until about 1 year ago. It was a teriffic day indeed.

I will keep looking for the Krell KSA-100. That seems like a perfect option for me. If I do find one I have a certified Krell Technician under my belt who can re-cap an one of these older Krell amplifiers for me.

I would love meet you and come listen to some music with you some day? Good recordings seem very hard to find so if you have any vinyl suggestions (any genre) I am open.

LitL

I have apogee centaur minors and drive it with Krell KSA 80. i have an audio note pre amp so i think i have the right blend of tubes and power. i then went and bought a pair of Krell KMA 160's (the mono blocks) but still haven't tried it out due to renovations and the kids taking up all my time.

also added a second REL sub so system is looking up would have loved to have the Stages though - have heard them a few times and they are special.