panel speaker help

Hi Mrt,

I did not audition these speakers, but merely suggested them as an alternative to the reference of your original thread.

However, I would strongly recommend you contact Graz at Apogeeacoustics.com, he has resurrected the infamous speakers to which I'm most familiar with in my early audio days.

As far as pricing, that's something only he or his website could provide, Kmart blue light specials not guaranteed, a lot of time and effort go into these.

He apparently has a U.S. dealer in Virginia (musictechnology.com) might be worth the trip.

Good luck and Happy Bird Day.

What amp are you using?
Maggies have much different personalities with different amps. Try pushing these with a pair of 200 watt parasounds and they will sound amazingly different/better than many lower powered more pretentios amps.

i find electrostats and apogees to present the timbre of instruments in a more realistic manner than other speakers. the original quad esl was especially adept at recreating the sound of an instrument, regardless of the electronics used.

magnepans have a lot of strong points, but timbral accuracy is not their most outstanding characteristic.

Yeh, pitch and tone (timbre?), or sound stage?

I don't have a great deal of experience with different speakers in my "listening" room, so take this with a grain of, OK.

I try to compare my 1.6's to the headphones I have (hard to beat decent headphones). I can create purer tones at the sacrifice of sound stage. I can create a better sound stage by sacrificing some tonal quality. I ended up with a balance between the two.

I mean these things (1.6's) are wonderful for the price. But my gosh, they change tremendously with break in, change character with any cable change, change character with an inch of movement in speaker or listening position (slight exageration, but not that far off). They change interaction with the "listening" room with temperature and humidity.

My basement "listening" room is odd. Almost "stadium" seating with an open end of 70'. Probably about as easy as it gets for not being extensively treated. I have a decent mid-fi SS setup (Arcam pre and power amps, Rega TT, and Nordost cables). I listen to bluesy rock and alternative, not necessarily the highest fidelity music.

The potential of that big sound stage intrigues me. I want to make it better. Bigger power? More sophisticated Pre & Amps? Different cables? More room treatment? Active crossover? 3.6's? I don't know the answer yet, but am enjoying the adventure and I am satisfied in the meantime (kinda contradictory isn't it).

So yes, timbre out of 1.6's is finicky. I don't mean to assume that you haven't, but (yeh, doesn't every stupid statement start with but), play with em' some more. You might yet find that happy medium!

Cheers and Good Luck,
Jim S.

Mrtennis...Your term "timbre of instruments" needs clarification. Different violins have different timbre. What is correct? I would like a speaker that distorts the timbre so that they all sound like Strads! But then, different Strads sound different.