Mods to Apogee Scintillas?

Sadly, Baranyi, the Apogees have been all but forgotten by most of the audiophile community.

A great many people feel the Apogees have yet to be surpassed. But, this is a here and now industry. While it is possible to find well engineered, creative, great sounding gear that should ostensibly become a lifetime purchase, it is obviously anathema to most dealers or the press.

You may want to check Audio Asylum or the Apogee devotee's website, as you will find more sympathetic ears there.

One glaring exception to what we face is Ralph Karsten of AtmaSphere. He founded his company in the economically depressed early 1980s. The presumption was probably the company would not be around, but he wanted to do all possible to ensure his customers would be able to enjoy his amplifiers for a minimum of 20 years. It was, and is, a holistic philosophy of analysis, design, and execution. From the tubes chosen, both for the sonics and longevity, to making the circuit design something accessible to an owner, to his world class customer service.

Probably the most surprising thing is that in a hobby where many have perished, AtmaSphere has flourished. I guess doing the right thing does work, and that the truly good people will rise to the top just like the cream in milk.

Thanks for your response and your thoughts about AtmaSphere. Bob

I guess I should apologize for the lack of interest in this thread, Bob. It is surely a sad day that we have come to when some of the finest loudspeakers ever manufactured generate absolutely zero interest.

While I have absolutely no experience in modding them, I hope you don't mind me brainstorming a little. Personally, you could always try the usual suspects, just go for better quality. Yada, yada, yada. It is very likely that this will take the speakers a step up, as there was nothing equivalent to the big North Creek coils back then or the good caps of today. One caution I would say if you have to replace a big cap is to do it with smaller caps in parallel to lower the ESR.

Again, I am a bit worried about giving specific advice, as there is the very real possibility of taking the sound a step back, but I do remember sites where they discussed crossover upgrades.

One thing I might try if I had the time and energy is some experimentation. Basically, a lot of the Apogees were more or less dead shorts, especially the early ones. Could adding some resistance help out? All I can say is that I would probably do some mad scientist work, and see if that took me anywhere. Apogees are an obvious example of the designer really going all out, with absolutely no concern for the amplifier manufacturer. Thus, you need brute force solid state of the nth degree.

In the end, you may just end up where you began, so keep the original crossovers intact for referece. But, wherever your journey takes you, you still may end up ahead of all the rest of us with your fabulous speakers.

Good luck,
Joe

Trelja... Amen sir. Had the fortunate pleasure of revisiting them again last year in Korea.Mated with modern day FM Acoustics amplification[cannot remember model #'s], however it was a revelation to say the least. I actually owned a pair of Scintillas in the early 80's that blew up 3 different amplifiers in the 2 short weeks I owned them. Every amplifier would go into severe oscillation and would just simply blow up. The god awful sounding 700 watt Phase Linear [700b] lasted all of 30 seconds before it literally melted[a good thing really]. The Kenwood LO-7m's succummed whithin an hour, but the worst of it was, it took the outputs out of one of my beloved Mark Levinson ML-2 monos. I know now that I should have known better as these were only a mere 25 watt amplifier, but they could output 200 watts into a 1 ohm load. To be candid here: when driven with the ML-2's they were probably the finest speakers yours truly has ever heard in a life time of serious audio. The Gentleman I visited in Korea had them set up in large room, and is a serious collector of vinyl. He was using a Micro Seiki table[not sure of the model????] outfitted with an original sumiko 800 [the arm] and a grado statement cartridge. I was truly mesmerized!Hypmotized would be more accurate. A magical day that will remain in my memory banks forever.Baranyi.... I truly envy you sir,You are a very lucky man! Search out the proper modification advice at all cost. All the best with your endevour.

I would go with something like this digital X-over room correction device http://www.clarityeq.com/dsp-product/pdc26.html in a full tri-amp.

I am also an Apogee owner (Centaur Minors) and (Duetta Signatures).

Dave