I know they made the infamous Scintilla and most of their models seem to get pretty positive reviews but I've never heard or seen a pair, never knew anyone that had.

Anyway I think I'm going to check out a pair of Apogee Centaurs later today. Hybrid ribbons with an 8" woofer handling the bottom end. Something like US$1600 new in 2000?

Anyone have any experience with the Centaurs and/or Apogee in general?

Thanks in advance.

i've never had the pleasure, but i'd sure like to. whats your timetable? i'll be up at Seatac around 10am and will be free after that.

I think I heard that model Apogee. It was either the Apogee or Slant 6 or something like that. It had a long ribbon and a medium size woofer. A really nice imaging speaker with better dispersion than an electrostat so placement is not as critical. I heard them for about 20 minutes so I couldn't develop a full impression but I think you will like them as I did.

I heard the Centaurs on more than one occasion.
At least three models were produced. Check " Hybrid Rybons on this link:

http://www.apogeespeakers.com/

I never felt the bass properly integrated with the rest of the spectrum.
Some people tend to agree with me, others not so much.

http://www.apogeespeakers.com/reviews/centaur_audiophile.htm

Jorge

Now that I think about it, the cohesion wasn't that smooth. The mids and highs were so good, I paid very little attention to the lows.

Apogees were built about 6-8 miles from me, and at one time I even worked in the same industrial park.

And to go even further, we used to apply the automotive gloss finish on some select models.

Nice speakers way out of my price range as a kid out of college.

Well it was an hour drive for nothing. Like the Carver Amazings I went to go listen to several weeks ago the Apogee that DID work sounded pretty good. The other one had a blown ribbon!

We pulled the crossover, everything looked good, jumped a spare speaker from the leads going to the ribbon, that worked, but no sound from the ribbon. Maybe I'm just not supposed to own anything but the conventional cone drive "pyramid of power"?

rats!

Usually what has happened is the solder has seperated from the ribbon. It is an easy fix. Just have to be careful.

Yeah, that's what I thought too... We took them apart right down to the solder and couldn't find anything visably wrong... Like the amazings I looked at the ribbon ends terminate at a small circuit board that provides both a solid mounting to retain the whole works as well as a more practical surface to solder to. In fact apogee permits users to replace the ribbon units themselves , which of course requires a steady hand with a soldering iron... I wigggled each connection very carefully under a very bright light *hoping* that it might be so simple... No luck.

The ribbon, actually both of them, showed tiny green spots in isolated areas, sort of like the patina on a piece of old brass... Some sort of corrosion or a mold maybe? Regardless whaever it was it did not look serious enough to have completely compromised the ribbons integrity.

The corrosion will increase the resistance. That may be why they wren't working.