Amperage for Apogees??


I just acquired a pair of Apogee Divas. Presumably, amps have come a long way since these were built. Can anyone recommend either newer or "oldie but goodie" amps and/or preamp/amp combos to really drive the most out of these full range ribbons? Thanks!
kbrannon
Just heard the Apogees driven by two Sony TA-N55ES stereo amps, (list $580 each) each run MONO, which gives 500 watts per amp into 4 ohms, and has enough current to drive the low impedence. Result? Grand, liquid, clean sound. But of course, it will sound equally well using any powerful, quality, solid state amplifier with a high damping factor, low distortion, and high current capability, regardless of the manufacturer. This restates the previous posting of finding a reasonably priced amplifier with high current capacity to drive the Apogees.
The Divas really aren't nearly as difficult to drive as the Apogee name seems to suggest (mostly a Scintilla related stereotype). The one problem can be the number of amps needed due to crossover configuration (can use a single stereo unit with the passive crossover...may need 6 channels with the DAX). The Diva sounds incredible with Krell amplification (Best I ever heard was with KRS series, but was also outstanding with KMA-200 and even KMA-160....would not use any Krell after the KSA-150/250/MDA-300/500 generation). Another great match was a pair of Classe DR-9 amps (which can be found at around $1k each on used market) As with Krell, not fond of newer Classe units and the DR-9 was especially good example of the breed. Briefly heard Divas with Adcom 555 amps and they did a fine job for amps on the very cheap, though I wouldn't choose them myself for such a setup.
I have the Tandberg 3016A and it`s a great. Tandberg will deliver 1,2KW power into 1 ohm. I use the Martin Logan Aerius.
in the old days, the amp to play these with was the adcom 555II. i must be running about 2 ohms with my setup and never a whimper. theyre cheeep and easy to unload. you may not want to unload. its a good inexpensive amp a guy could afford to keep around for experimenting with anyway.