True Sound Works Apogee Diva Ultimate - Any Good?

Lissnr, I'm glad to hear about another Diva owner using tubes. I think Apogees and tubes are the most magical combination possible, yet so many people parrot the claim that you have to use Krells with Apogees.

Tomb11, One thing I've noticed with the Divas (albeit driven by 1000 watts of tubes) is that they don't give you the usual cues of excessive loudness that other speakers do. Most speakers will sound LOUD because of "cone cry", non-linear distortion products and thermal effects on magnetics (as well as amp clipping). Many times with the Divas, I've realized just how loud they are playing as the volume level has crept up and up. Someone will walk into the room and have to shout to me over the volume levels. That's not necessarily a good thing for my ears. The Divas keep their composure and continue to sound pure and clean, which can fool you into thinking they are not as loud as they really are. Jason Bloom claimed that the last version of the Divas with the stronger magnets could hit 118 dB SPL with 100 watts per channel. I am sure that I have momentarily gotten into the 120s of dBs, but I do not need, nor want, to go there out of concern for saving what's left of my hearing. At reasonable or slightly loud levels the dynamic punch and purity can be really pretty astounding.

I own Duetta Sig's with a rebuilt crossover (and no buzz). I drive them with a McCormack DNA500 amp but there are tubes upstream. Yes, these speakers are magical.

In fact, I just came back from a weekend listening to various Magico speakers driven by a variety of different high priced electronics, including Audio Note Kondo's and such. The sound was good, but it didn't have the magic of my Duetta's.

About the only thing I can say is lacking in the Apogees is that they don;t necessarily have that "punch you in the chest" bass kick that you can get from a good cone speaker. Though the rebuilt ones with updated ribbons from graz do come close.

I don't mean to diss Magico, but I spent a lot of time at a recent CES with the Q7s, and I just don't get it. I came back several times as they swapped out amps. Sure, trade show conditions aren't optimal, and all that, but they had a decent room and plenty of top-flight megabucks electronics. The Q7s did all the audiophile things right: Deep and powerful bass? Check. Relatively uncolored midrange? Check. Airy highs? Sort of, check. Imaging? OK, check. Etc, etc, etc. Check, check, check. Magic? Uh...

There was simply no "magic" in Magico, even with these mighty Q7s. With bigger Apogees set up and driven properly, you can find yourself immersed in a "reality distortion field" with palpable instruments playing in front of you. All clean, pure and relaxed. That's the way I'll take it, thanks.

Magico is not alone. There are plenty of megabuck contenders to the speaker throne. It's just that Magicos, particularly the Q7s, are so very ambitious and costly, and TAS praised them so enthusiastically. I had high hopes for them, but as has often happened with new shiny audio things, I was disappointed.

Brian_beck, this was my experience with Magico as well. I heard a couple of their smaller speakers with a variety Bryston amps. The small was small for one of the speakers & there was bass overhang. If I discount that effect, I would say that these Magicos came up way short on the 'magic' factor esp. considering their price.
FWIW. YMMV. IMHO.

Mgattmch,

I can't comment on Divas, but I have a pair of 1-ohm Scintillas which I bought secondhand, and I'm pretty sure they were refurbished by TSW. I drive them with Ken Stevens' JL-3 Statement monoblock tube amps, and I am one happy camper. I never thought anything would surpass my Acoustat Spectra 66s, but the Apogees are so clean, they make the Acoustats sound "veiled" in comparison. BTW, the tubes drive them to crescendo leevls, even at 1 ohm.