2. amps-preamps
  3. 1226469897

tube amp for Apogee Tweeter mid-range

I recently upgraded the capacitors in the crossover of my Apogee Stage speakers. This was a good and bad thing at the same time. While it opened up the upper frequencies and let the subtle details shine through, it also exposed that "solid state" sound in my amplifiers. I'm using a Pass Labs x-150 to drive the Apogee bass panel and an old modified Sim Audio W3 amp to drive the tweeter midrange ribbon. While the Pass Labs may be a better amp, it was a horrible match when I had it driving the tweeter midrange ribbon. The sound was like turning the treble up to +11 on an old Radio Shack receiver!
Does anyone know of a musical Tube amp under 2K used, that would produce detailed and smooth (not dull) music to drive my Apogee Tweeter midrange ribbon. I'm currently using a Naim 202 preamp, Raysonic 128 CD player, Linn Sondeck with Koetsu Rosewood and Ayre phone pre-amp.
scott_kindt
apachef1
164 posts
 
Scott

I replaced the caps and resistors on a pair of Polk Sda srs speakers last year. I now have about 300+ hrs on them and just last month I noticed they opened up wide and deep.
Take your time with the upgrade to amps so you can hear each tweek as you go along. You can't go wrong with a Rogue amp or a single ended tube amp. The tweeter ribbon only needs a few watts to give you ear peircing SPL
I've listened to Pass Labs with a Dunlvy V setup and was very disappointed with the performance. Pass is very overpriced and over rated IMO
I listened to the same speakers with a pair of Lamm monblocks. I was left thinking something was wrong with the pass amps thats how dissapointing the sound was

Ed
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
Scott

Biamping...or at least passive biamping, didn't do anything for me. I came to the conclusion, that one single better quality amp, sounds better than two lessor quality amps. The ribbon doesn't really need gobs of power...and it shares midrange duty with the bass panel....all the two-ways do.

With the panel and ribbon, both reproducing some part of the midrange, using "unlike" amps is very hit and miss (worse case is trying to blend SS with tubes)...although I note, that it does work...and sound fine to you in your system....hit and miss (I guess you hit).

Biamping the larger three-way models works out a little better, because you have a dedicated midrange ribbon, and it crosses over to the bass panel at a much lower freq.

Maybe your dealer will let you take a pair of Rogue 150's home for a few days (have him put KT-88's in it, and use the 4 ohm speaker taps)....and a good tube preamp?

Ed brings up a good point about burn in, I'd give that some time also.

Dave
gallant_diva
143 posts
 
Scott:

You can try Audio valve or Antique SOund Lab.

I agree with Dave that bi-amping is a waste of time.

B-amping (many many combinations) never worked for me because of lack of coherence. My current configuration is Apogee full range (modified) driven with one amp, the TRL GT-800. The negative effect of this excellent sound is total satisfaction which has made me lose all interest in trying out more amps and even posting on forums.
More to discover