I got the Apogee disease about 7 or 8 years ago. I have a lovely friend who had an incredible system. The Apogee Full-Range with SIX Krell KRS 200 monoblocks. I work in the music business and just finished an album with a Japanese rock band at Air studios in North London. During recording, you must listen to each track over a hundred times, checking, comparing, editing, adding and subtracting effects until everyone is happy. Then I went to my friend`s house and listen to what we had done in the studio. I was dumb-struck. It was hearing things for the first time. You could hear the guitarist`s palm slide along the neck of the guitar, the sound was so physical after a while I thought I could smell the aftershave of the vocalist. I was speechless. I needed Apogees�c

I asked my friend to do his best to help me get a pair. It has been over 7 years now but finally my dream is sitting in my house. I cannot thank my friend enough for finding the perfect speaker. Apparently they were on a rubbish dump but a genius in Holland brought them back to life.

In order to finance this project, I had to sell my former dream. It was a gorgeous Porsche 911 SC. I have learnt more about �gquality�h from this car than many books and relationships. However as you get older, the Porsche looks sillier and sillier. A guy in his 30s with a Porsche is OK but double the age and the car looks a bit odd. No, sorry, the driver looks a bit odd. However a man in his 70s with a lovely audio system is not odd at all. So the Porsche was sold.

Again it was my good friend who recommended how to drive these one ohm amp killers. I still CANNOT believe there are p-n-s-s out there like Ken Kessler who recommends the Krell KAV 300iL in a well-known audio magazine with one ohm Scintillas. It might make noise but if he thinks that`s music, he must have more wax in his ears than what is used at a motor show.

My friend told me to get some Krell MDA-300s. Bought a nice pair on Audiogon from a good chap in the U.S. I have been a bit scared to use them in Japan with the electricity difference and Hertz difference with US electricity. North Japan is 50 Hertz, and South Japan is 60 Hertz for a start. Would just transformers be OK? I didn`t want to try the system and ruin an amp or even worse, a speaker so I sat quiety for a few months. However Henk did such a great job with the speakers, just looking at them was satisfying. They are pieces of art.

My good friend came to a H-Fi show here in Tokyo. He came over and set the system up for me. We were both a bit nervous but that lovely blue colour on both Krells lit up and we were in business. My good friend has listened to many many great systems. A good friend of his had a pair of the Grandes�canother has the best MBLs, do I need to say more?

We both sat there stunned. He went to the German Physik booth at the show. A pair of these speakers is nearly 100,000 pounds. He was stunned by them but in the end he thought Henk`s creations were better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do I need to say more?

I think these amps are one of, if not the best match for the Scintillas. Yes you can fry eggs on them and they like electricity but I feel that is what is needed to drive these speakers. Ken and his 300IL ha ha ha

It seems I have found the perfect system. Therefore I am not sure if I need the forum much more�c It was useful in getting a lot of information about products out there but I am not looking anymore.

I am using the Krell Home Theatre as a stereo pre-amplifier. Wicked. Might buy a KRC is I win the lotto but the sound of this very very complicated surround processor as a simple stereo pre-amplifier is awesome. I bought a US version of this pre-amplifier on Yahoo auction in Japan. As Krell has decided to make these amplifiers specifically 50 Hertz or 60 Hertz, I needed to get my wallet out again to buy a CSE RK-100 in order transform the Hertz as well as the electricity (http://www.cse.ne.jp/reg.htm - sorry but all in Japanese).

Listened to the new Robert Wyatt album �gcomic opera�h last night. Great album. But with the Apogees you feel he is there with you in the room. Outstanding. I would like to thank Henk from the bottom of my heart for his fantastic work and my good friend for finding and recommending the perfect components to me.
Me & My Babies:

Wonderful looking speakers!

Enjoy

those are the most beautiful scintillas i've ever seen. those metallic inserts make them look so modern. like the last apogees made in the grand series. at first i almost thougt they were a little too short panels from the studio grand...

are those custom made feet make the scintillas stand completely upright or are they backtilted?

I think I can answer that question best

The feet under these scinnies are adjustable between vertical and about 8 degrees tilt aft.

Thanks for the compliment!

quote:

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Originally posted by henk:
I think I can answer that question best

The feet under these scinnies are adjustable between vertical and about 8 degrees tilt aft.

Thanks for the compliment!

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Honor to whom honor is due!!

wonderful work!

Carlton

So true with Scintillas and amps, such a difference between playing and DRIVING them. I n the old days the amps were clear in their protest, they just gave up. Now more amps struggle on, sound comes out but the potential is not realised...

Gorgeous, Scinnies!!
Do you like to listen with that much toe in or is the placement for photos?

Being the "good friend" Robin mentions, I have to give my opinion on his sytem; absolutely amazing!! This could be my very best Apogee experience ever!! I felt the scintillas were more coherent than my previous tri-amplified full-range system. I also felt more emotional strength over the full-range, and sweeter sound. On the other hand, the scintillas are a lot more directive and, of course, the full-ranges offer a wider soundstage.

I had actually heard scintillas before, but they don't even come close to this new Henk version, both in terms of sonic performance and esthetics. Graz must also be congratulated: his new ribbons are a lot more precise than the original ones; What is your secret Graz??!!!...

I think those speakers should be in a modern art museum and we should give the Nobel prize to Henk!!!

Robin mentions me listening to a pair of GERMAN PHYSIKS at the Tokyo Audio Show; yes, I was very impressed. However, it is still difficult to have a definitive opinion after a 30 minutes listening session at an audio show Has anyone on this forum had a chance to listen to them?

http://www.german-physiks.com/german-physiks-speaker-line/pqs-402.html

Greetings,
Burner.

Verry cool , can you tell me the process please !

Thank you

quote:

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Originally posted by stevan:
The silver plating on top of the midrange ribbons - Did you paint them or is it really some kind of plating ?

Stevan

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Stevan,

if my memory doesn't fail it is six nines pure aluminium foil used by master carpenter Henk.

In line with the beautifully warm-coloured wood used in front of the MRTW.

And not only did they look great, their musical performance in Henks place was quite convincing as well.

Does this applys to Henks FullRange sitting beautifully in the back of Robin's Scintilla?...We want new Graz's Scintillas(with Henks workmanship of course) vs new Graz's FullRange(Henk's Fullrange)?....

Does the Graz's Scinitllas sounded more coherent and sweeter than the Graz's FullRange?...

A fair comparison between my FR's and Robin's scinnies was unfortunately not possible.

At the time I had Robin's scinnies hooked up as follows:
denon dvd1920 -> sony tae-9000es -> stax dma X-2 -> scinnies

I was using the FR's as follows:

dvd1920 -> behringer dcx2496 -> passive attenuator -> stax dma x-2 bass, plinius sa102 mids and highs -> FullRange

Especially the behringer was a very weak link in the chain, which has since been replaced by a monarchy upsampler dip and a DBX4800.

I guess the Sony pre-amp could be improved upon a great deal as well, but as it is now it only services the surround channels, strictly movies. And i just don't care how well they sound. Decent is good enough for me.

Unfortunately this happened after the scinnies had left the building.

And as you probably know my room has had extensive surgery since, which still isn't finished.

I think I have to conclude that in that set-up the scinnies outdid the FR's in musicality Brad would probably say they produced better tone )
The FR's give me a better sense of scale though, more space if you will.

I have the feeling that once I'm happy tweaking the last of the potential of the FR's they will exceed the scintilla's in virtually every aspect. One thing about the FR's that I find is very important is the vastly increased size of the sweetspot relative to the scinnie. For that alone I wouldn't want to trade in my FR's for scinnies. Apart from that I would live happily ever after with a pair though.

[This message has been edited by henk (edited November 08, 2007).]

A few more shots to gloat on...

It seems from this forum that speaker positioning is a very complicated process with Apogees. Agreed the sweetspot on Scintillas is alot smaller than the Full-Ranges but it is still massive!!! So much so that I just put the speakers with alot of toe (much too much if you read the owner`s manual), but they sounded SO good, we didn't change the speaker position. Might get a bit picky and start moving them around in the future but so far totally not needed.

CARLTON - Yup! U R right - the best track on that giveaway album!!!

One last word. The price of Henk's great work was very very very reasonable. He even made such good crates, the removal guys were commenting on them!

Many many thanks for the compliments even though I am merely the owner!

Amazing speakers indeed. Thanks for sharing the photos.

I have a query regarding the CSE RK-100. If I understood correctly, unlike transformers, it converts both the voltage and frequency (a bit like the older PS Audio Power Plant series).

Do you know if the CSE can be used on Krell Power Amplifiers (the large PS Audio Power Plant can)?