So Many Apogees for sale, and so few takers

everything is slow in the summer too. In february I listed my Von Schweikert VR-33s for sale and had 5 people ready to commit in 48 hours before I reconsidered and decided to re-evaluate things. I listed the same VR-33s now in late July and barely any interest... I think folks just focus on the hobby less durring fairer weather.

Gopher: Maybe in the winter months people go out less and spend less money which would make a February purchase possible, but I also think that income tax checks right around the corner has a lot to do with it also.

I agree with some of the posters that pointed out that some of the asking prices seem exorbitant. While I admire the effort, and despite numerous auditions, I've never heard the Apogees set up well. The rest of the gear seemed up to the task, but the various rooms I've heard them in all presented with a lumpy frequency response and a downward tilt. That they've attained a somewhat legendary status leads me to believe others have had more success with them. As far as amplification, I can understand why some might balk, and yet other just embrace the requirements. All in all, they don't seem to be the most appealing choice for most.

Unsound, I've heard some bad sound from Apogees as well. Some of the early models had voicing problems, and also differed within production runs. You can see this in the reviews and the response measurements. Overall performance and consistency improved radically over the years.

In two channel reproduction of recordings made in large venues, it's long been known that a downtilt of 4-6 dB actually sounds better than flat. For small ensembles, flat is better. This is a shortcoming of two channel recordings, not the speakers -- basically, forward-facing cardioid microphones don't pick up enough ambiance, which, in a large hall, is attenuated in highs, and close miking is even worse. Some speakers take the flat approach, some the downtilt approach. I don't think one or the other is right.

One problem Apogees do have is a hollowed-out bass response, with a peak at the very low primary resonance. Essentially, they traded away flatness for superior bass extension.

Still, they made some superb speakers. I think one of the main reasons they aren't more popular now is that despite Graz's life-saving support, the woofers are very costly to refurbish. I've seen long-time Apogee lovers say that they're no longer an economical proposition for that reason. This may explain relatively high selling prices -- if you'd spent a lot to repair yours, you'd naturally want to recoup some of it. And of course, the larger planars will always appeal to a relatively few people, e.g., those with dedicated sound rooms or dirt on their wives. The Tympanis suffer from this problem as well, which I think is why they can be purchased for prices that are insanely low compared to more reasonably-sized speakers of comparable quality.