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Apogee Scintilla Power

I know this is an old topic but here in 2019 has anyone come across any “new” ideas for driving Scintilla 1 ohm’s?  Just looking for some options. The obvious ones i know/heard of are old Krell, H2O, Lamm (big money) and some pretty wild european amps? I currently have a pair of Sunfire 300’s (with Scintilla mod) that actually sound pretty good and it is amazing what Bob Carver achieved here but looking for the next step. Thanks for any ideas. No need telling me to sell my Scintilla’s.....:). I am all in and really do like the Apogee stuff. Maybe its nostalgic or the journey. Thanks very much. 
westerlm
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,809 posts
 
Other than the one ohm load, that speaker is otherwise reasonably efficient and easy to drive. The only time I heard a pair was at a reveiwer's house with our 100 watt MA-1 amplifiers using a set of autoformers to accommodate the load. There was plenty of power and it sounded quite nice.

So if you wanted to use tubes, you could get a set of ZEROs (www.zeroimpedance.com) to help the amp out with the load.
westerlm OP
8 posts
 
Thanks for the additional input. DR-3’s definitely on the list.

Great thought on the autoformers. What is interesting is that my Mc MC7270 has autoformers and a 1 ohm connection did not sound great with the, Scintilla’s. Sounds great with many other speakers. Would love to try the Zeros. Not cheap. 
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,809 posts
 
Its really important to keep your speaker cables as short as possible when dealing with a 1 ohm load!! If ever there was an argument for balanced operation and monoblocks, this is it because you really don't want to have speaker cables be over about a foot or so unless they're 4 gauge or larger. The actual speaker connectors are important too as you simply don't want any DC resistances in series with the amplifier output.
racamuti's avatar
racamuti
362 posts
 
There are a couple of Wolcott Presence amps on ebay (do a search) one is a stereo amp rated at 120 watts($3500) the other one are mono amps rated at 220 watts($3600) Ive heard that they work great with panel speakers but never listened to them except at a show (CES).Something to check out, TISH
westerlm OP
8 posts
 
Thanks for the Wolcott tip! While i am certainly a tube fan with some really great sounding older CJ tube amps i am going to try to make SS work for the Scintillas. Certainly much debate around which is better and attributes for each i value. The apogee ribbons really do respond to control which is why the H2O class D of Henry Ho’s is so highly regarded. I read somewhere that Bob Carver has some new tube designs set up for hard loads (like 1 ohm Scintilla). Something tells me this could be a really good option if within reach financially. 
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