Fig.3 Apogee Stage, room response at listening position, 10 degrees off-axis (2dB/small vertical div.).
Finally, in fig.4, the measurement of fig.3 is repeated—but with the speaker toed-in 5" toward the listening seat. The…
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Let's move the mike to the listening position and look at what happens in fig.3. Here, with the mike off-axis in relation to the tweeter, a midrange recession is quite obvious from 500Hz to about 2kHz. Look at the energy output at 2kHz relative to that at 5kHz and 300Hz. This is a significant and broad valley that you'd better believe is audible.
Sidebar 1: 1990 Measurements
After Dick delivered the review copy to me, Tom Norton and I quickly carried out a set of measurements to see if the Stage had any other idiosyncrasies other than the ones Dick had uncovered. Looking first at the speaker's impedance as measured with Stereophile's Audio Precision System One, fig.5 shows the impedance with the HF control set to Normal, fig.6 with it set to High. Both average around 3 ohms, with a slight rise at 400Hz due to the crossover. A comparison of the shapes of the two curves suggests that the High position is the natural output of the…
Martin Colloms commented on the Stage in February 1991 (Vol.14 No.2):
I had fun with the Apogee Stage, which I regard as a real honey. While not perfect—nothing ever is—the Stage was wonderfully friendly, sounding good from day one and improving further with time and experience. An eminently musical transducer, you can believe all the good things you've heard about this model. Just as I was about to suggest that a stand might be an advantage, I hear that Apogee makes one! A pad of Dacron wadding may also be used, applied to the back panel to tame the 42Hz bass resonance according to…
Sam Tellig commented on the Stage in March 1991 (Vol.14 No.3):
Let me tell you about my friend Lou.
Until recently, Lou rarely hung around with audiophiles. As a result, he's been able to enjoy music and hasn't had to worry much about sound. Actually, his system has been one of the best I've heard—partly because of his superb listening room, with its cathedral ceilings.
Five years ago, Lou bought a pair of Croft OTL mono tube amps from England—still probably the only pair of Croft OTL amps in North America. (Good thing Lou knows how to service his own amps.) He also has a…
Thomas J. Norton commented on the Stage in July 1991 (Vol.14 No.7):
At the beginning of the second and last day's listening sessions for this massive group test of inexpensive speakers, JA requested that, when it was all over, we set up the Apogee Stages to get a feel for the program material over a solid Class B recommended loudspeaker. At the end of the sessions, though fatigue was rapidly setting in, we conducted this audition, and decided to score it. Of course, even though the Stages were also behind the screen, everyone now knew what they were listening to.
The reactions…
Thomas J. Norton reviewed the Apogee Mini-Grand, based on the Stage, in March 1994 (Vol.17 No.3):
á-po-gee: the farthest or highest point.
When Jason Bloom and Leo Spiegel founded Apogee Acoustics in 1979, they picked an ambitious name. I've never heard the original Apogee loudspeakers (Steven Stone still has a pair), but a friend of mine could scarcely contain his enthusiasm after hearing them at the 1981 Summer CES. My first real exposure to Apogee was at a Frankfurt (Germany) High-End Hi-Fi Show in 1983. The model I heard there, which left me with an indelible favorable…
The Mini-Grand Stage's cosmetics have been considerably changed from those of the standard Stage—a combination of a textured black-matte finish with black grillecloth. Combined with the matching Mini-Grand Stereo Subwoofer, it's a striking package—more than slightly reminiscent of the Grand itself.
1994 System
The Mini-Grands were set up facing down the long axis of my new 18' by 26' by 11' main listening room. The associated system consisted of Krell electronics: the Reference 64 processor, DT-10 transport, KRC preamplifier, and two KSA-300S power amplifiers—one driving the Stages…
I did encounter one unexpected problem with the Stages. Apparently, Apogee, in a production change, used washers that tended to loosen and rattle on some samples. This happened with both of ours. First the left began buzzing on bass-heavy program material, seeming to resonate only at a particular frequency. The unit was replaced, the new sample broken-in, and the auditioning continued. Then, late in the second test cycle, the right loudspeaker (the Stages are mirror-imaged) began to buzz slightly. This was also replaced, but because there wasn't sufficient time to properly break-in the new…
I wanted it all. To try and get it, I pulled out the stops and tried the "Rule of Thirds"—something for which I've never before had the space. Simply put, the Rule of Thirds requires you to place the loudspeakers one-third of the room length out from the front wall, with the listener one-third of the room length from the rear wall. You don't need a calculator to figure out that this requires either a very long room or a very intimate relationship with your loudspeakers. Since my new room is just under 26' long, it was a practical alterative. "This can't work," I thought, as I was sitting…
On these and similar recordings there was a restriction of available playback levels. What was happening seemed to be the result of a combination of the extreme low-frequency boost produced by the DAX (see "Measurements" sidebar), infrasonic signals which were not attenuated but were reproduced in full and at high power by the KSA-300S, combined with the Mini-Grand subwoofer's reflex loading (footnote 4) and a large listening room. Because the Stage used alone was not subject to the DAX and its attendant LF boost, it actually played louder with some of the selections mentioned, though…