Which basic amps can drive 1 ohm loads ?

The Apogee Scintilla's (which I believe you're referring to) were most often mated with Classe Audio amps. Jason Bloom and David Reich had a close working relationship; I'd go so far as to say they voiced their stuff for the best synergy. The pure "class A" Classe audio amplifiers that mated with the Scintilla's were the DR-3 (sometimes in pairs) and more appropriately the DR-VHC amps. Gobs of current. I know all this to be accurate; email me if you'd like to know more. Best, Jeff

I have no quarrel with chunky class A amps with huge heat sinks being able to run a 1 ohm load. Classe amps of that descriptin do power the Scintilla well. But that does not mean they have the best synergy with the Scintilla. It may have been true a dozen years ago. If the Pass X600 wasn't around, I would have thought seriously about the Classe..

There was a guy here on Audiogon that was running Perreaux PMF-2150's in bridged mode to drive Apogee's. I can't remember who it was, but that is one helluva testimony to the ruggedness / reliability of the Perreaux. In bridged mode, the amps were seeing somewhere around half an ohm (.5 ohms) !!!

As a side note, my Perreaux 3150's have no problem driving very low impedances. Much of this has to do with the heavy gauge output inductor that Perreaux uses. Not only does the amp maintain a low output impedance as power is increased*, it can pass more current on demand as needed without any type of restriction. That's why these amps, when running properly, have great bass impact. Most amps have relatively scrawny output inductors, so they lack the capacity to pass enough current as needed. The end result is a lack of control as impedances are reduced and a reduction in "slam" at any impedance.

Other than that, the two channel Sunfire Signature will drive Apogee's with no problem. Sunfire even has a specific set of "factory mods" that they do for Apogee's. I've had this done to my Signature and it noticeably increased the bass impact. One of the reasons for better bass response ? They install larger output inductors to pass more current : ) Sean
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* damping factor varies with the dynamic load and output levels that the amps sees and responds to. Many "techs" & "engineers" will say i'm off my rocker, so believe whom you want.

Wow, Sean, I have been an Apogee nut for nearly twenty years, and I have never heard of Apogee mods... home remedy tweaks, yes.

My last speakers were Sigs. Awesome.

Just to clarify things, the "Apogee mod" is the slang term that Sunfire uses for the mods that they do to their amps to better deal with very tough to drive, low impedance, low sensitivity speakers. Since Apogee's are the "ultimate" in terms of "low impedance, low output, high reactance" speakers, they chose to name the mods for the amps after those speakers. As such, Sunfire does not perform modifications to Apogee speakers.

Other than that, i'm sure that there are mods and tweaks that one can do to the various Apogee models. Sean
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