True Sound Works Apogee Diva Ultimate - Any Good?

Many thanks for the additional responses to my post. Based on the last two responses I am now convinced TSW Diva Ultimate’s are the way I want to go eventually. Besides, they just look beautiful (IMHO) and make a statement about how serious we take our HiFi!

I don't think that your feeling that the Divas could be your dream speakers is misguided at all, Mgattmch.

I recently acquired a pair of original, but late production Divas with the bi-amplification option (including the DAX line-level crossover). Luckily no buzz issues; the foam is good, for now anyway. The DAX (purportedly a Krell design) is filled with mediocre opamps (40 stages!) and was the weak link. I have upgraded it extensively, opamps, caps, etc. Soon to be all tubes. The details are on the Apogee Users site if anyone cares. I would not dismiss bi-amping, although the stock DAX won't cut it and you'll need a lot of technical wherewithal to do something better.

The often-parroted misconception that all Apogees are hard to drive is simply baloney. The Scintilla was the crazy one that dropped to 1-ohm. The Divas are mostly a purely resistive 3- to 4-ohm load (I've plotted the impedance curves of mine), with much more benign phase angles than any cones-in-a-box. They are insensitive however, so you'll need a lot of power, which these speakers can handle with aplomb and grace. I am a tube guy, and I would not have considered Divas if I would have been stuck with Krells or something along those lines. I ended up with two stereo Audio Research D-250 Mk II Servo amps in a vertical bi-amping arrangement (one stereo amp behind each speaker) in a large room. I doubled the supply capacitance to REF 600/750 joule levels. But, you probably can get by just fine on a lot less than a kilowatt.

I hate it when a proud owner crows about his purchase decision as if to reaffirm to himself and to others the enlightened wisdom of his decision. It causes any of us cognitive dissonance to think that we might not have made the best choice in anything in life, and many people will defend their position beyond all reason. But I have to tell you that in my 40 years of being a card-carrying audiophile I have NEVER heard music reproduced as startlingly realistically as I have with the Divas driven by these big tubes. I have listened extensively in the past two years to big Wilsons, MBLs, the Magico Q5, Martin-Logan CLX, Maggie 20.7, Nola, etc, etc. My prior speakers were Quad ESL-63s with my own subwoofers. (NB: I have not heard the latest Sound Labs. I was impressed with them in prior years enough to be curious about them.)

Well, I have to say that the big Divas can do it all: natural detail, extended bandwidth, smoothness, clarity, sound-staging/imaging, lack of coloration, natural tone colors, tremendous dynamics. They have a "jump factor": they can startle and excite me at times in a manner that I've not heard from other speakers. Whoever said the sweet spot is small got that wrong. These speakers sound almost as good anywhere across the sofa and nearby chairs as they do in the "sweet spot" in the center.

But a unique aspect is harder for me to describe: They have this "togetherness" that I find lacking in other speakers I've heard. Everything is of a piece. It's as if all the distractions from the usual little resonances, noises and phase errors have been removed and you are connected closer to the original sound. Distortion is also very low. Everything is clean, but not in an astringent way. In a funny way, they remind me of the intimate connection to music that you get with really good headphones, but without the in-your-head sound-staging aberrations. Several long-time audiophile friends have come away quite impressed. One pal buried his face in his hands and said "simply amazing...". I'm grateful he held back on crying.

Yes, they need lots of care with the associated gear and in setting them up in a room - what else would you expect? They are divas after all. I've got more work to do with my too-reverberant room, but things are working well enough right now to procrastinate.

If and when I need support, I'm sure Rich at True Sound Works will do the work. I am leery of the new modified ribbons as I think that Jason Bloom voiced these speakers expertly. He had quite an ear. But I will listen to them someday and give them a fair shot. Right now I'm plowing through old LPs and having a ball. My electric bill has suffered though...

The Divas certainly have "a sound". They are along the road of impressionist, especially lower midrange and into the bass, than literal sounding.

They have that "airiness" of open back speakers, but a softening on transients that is just there no matter what. Since they have highs, and play sine waves nicely, folks like to argue the softening, but it's in the transients that they don't have the speed that some other speakers do have.

If you play mostly the music they are good at, and don't need the ultimate "truth" from a speaker, they can be very enjoyable, musical, easy on the ears. If you need a cymbal to have the snap of the real thing, a high hat to sizzle, a snare to POP, you may be disappointed.

This is no knock, they are better than most speakers made today.

I did not stick to the OP well, in comparing the Divas to only those you listed. I would pick the Divas. The Divas have more "substance" (not talking about tonality, talking about density of sound) than the Soundlabs, and the dynamics you list are hardly the best in the dynamic worlds.

After hearing various Maggies in the 80's, I was determined to own planar speakers. I finally bought Duetta Signatures in 1990.

In about 2000 I bought Apogee Diva's, and kept the Duetta's. A couple years later I replaced all the ribbons and foam, with Graz's direct guidance: picture and video exchange with telephone assistance. That was when he still sold bass panels to the public. Given the time he spent with me, no wonder he changed his bass panel sales policy.

The repanelled Diva's were magical speakers. I won't try to describe what everyone else has said above. The magic of great planers can't be beat. Except in one area.

Pure dynamic loud LOUD music, with deep loud bass. The Diva's go loud, but not LOUD. Not like cones can. The only time I need that is for parties and dancing and so on, which happens quite a bit. And, when playing something like The Wall at concert level after a few adult beverages. The Diva's can't do those things like cones.

The first cone speaker I have heard that has most of the planar/electrostatic magic is the Wilson Sasha, which also does LOUD and BASS, like only cones can.

The only way I could afford the Sasha was to sell the Duetta's and Divas. I now have the Sasha's.

So, if you can live without the really LOUD dynamics cones can deliver, and just bask in the planar heaven Diva's reproduce through every other aspect of the absolute sound, get the Divas. Especially if professionally reconstructed with Graz ribbons.

I sure miss mine, although I am not willing to go back. But, I have not heard the True Sound Works Diva's :)

Tom