apogee stage (1990)- beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

two weeks ago, i felt nostalgic and expressed my longings for apogee here.

just yesterday, browsing at echoloft buy/sell section, i found a pair of apogee stage being sold at an affordable sgd1,300 a pair (with original stands) and all of my sudden, my passion is reignited again.

i called the seller frantically for the rest of the day, trying to find out all the facts, at the same time, arranging my trip down to s'pore.

i consulted ooi, who is an apogee fanatic (ooi owns the apogee duetta signature) but he expressed that the apogee stage is not likely to surpass my maggie 3.6, given the gap in technology advancement. but i was adamant of getting it because it was the apogee stage that got me hooked in the world of planars 15 years ago. it was love at first sight. it was selling at sgd4,500 in 1991. being a fresh graduate who earned a meagre sgd1,300 a month, the apogee stage was a distant dream but i was so enchanted by its sound that i saved up enough to get myself the lower model, the centaurus minor at sgd2,500.

in the back of my mind, i am fearful that the stages wouldn't have stood the test of time and starting to show its wear and tear. and i am not entirely convinced that the spare ribbon parts in australia are as good as the stock parts.

anyway, the seller is an extremely eccentric fella and i felt kinda of confused at the end of the multiple conversations i had with him. i decided to tell him the following conditions: i will personally come back on the 1st week of october to inspect the speakers. if they are as perfect as he claims, i would buy them on the spot and carry them back in my car. in the meantime, he is free to sell them to the first interested buyer on a first-come-first-served basis.

i have been digging up all the related articles on net and prepare for its possible arrival in october.... do you think i will get the apogee stage? do you think it is worth all the trouble? is first love that unforgettable?

i am waiting with bated breath.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bro,

The Stages are great and nice but the size of the images will be smaller than your current Mg 3.6R. If want to get it fo nostalgia it is OK, but sound wise the Mg 3.6R is better.( I should know cos I am the one who sold you the Maggies..Heehee remember me?) If I were you, I would go for the Duetta Sigs or better still the Diva. Incidentally, Soundscape Hifi has one for sale. I am using the Diva at the moment. Great sound especially after I modded the crossovers with better stuff.
Lastly at S$1.3K it is a good price and you won't lose much even if you decide to sell them later..

Anonymous said...

Bro,

The Stages are great and nice but the size of the images will be smaller than your current Mg 3.6R. If want to get it fo nostalgia it is OK, but sound wise the Mg 3.6R is better.( I should know cos I am the one who sold you the Maggies..Heehee remember me?) If I were you, I would go for the Duetta Sigs or better still the Diva. Incidentally, Soundscape Hifi has one for sale. I am using the Diva at the moment. Great sound especially after I modded the crossovers with better stuff.
Lastly at S$1.3K it is a good price and you won't lose much even if you decide to sell them later..

[img]http://img10.picsplace.to/16/P1010058.jpg[/img

maggielurva 愛美姬 said...

hi dr.benny,

what a surpise! you made my day!

thanks for the dropping by. hope we can meet up and listen to your diva in my next trip :-)

i consider the stage instead of duetta sig because my amp can only drive the stage but not the duetta.

i will leave it to fate la!

Anonymous said...

Bro,

There is a pair of Duetta Sigs in Echoloft for sale. Have you checked out the pics of the Divas in Soundscape Hifi?

maggielurva 愛美姬 said...

hi benny

the duet sig belongs to the same owner as the stage. i think he was asking for sgd3,500.

i will check both of them out next month, provided he hasn't sold them. the last i heard is - he desperately needed some hard cash so he might offload them to the dealers.

diva is definitely out of the question. without 300watts, i don't think you can move the diva!

i love the stage becos of its dimunitive-but-big-sounding virtue and also because i am very sure that my ARC classic 120 will give very good sound. in fact, martin colloms recommended the pairing many years ago.

incidentally, i found an apogee mini grand locally which the owner wanted to sell them separately, i.e. he wanted to sell the stage and keep the subwoofer. i believe the mini grand (1996) is newer than the stock apogee stage (1991-1992). the price is RM4,000 (sgd1,700).

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

Sorry to disappoint you but I just bought the Stage from him yesterday! I didn't realised that his Apogees have faraway suitors, until I googled for info on my new purchase and stumbled onto your blog...
I auditioned both duetta and stage, and must admit when properly driven, the duettas are more refined speakers. Well good news he is still searching for buyer for his duetta :-).

maggielurva 愛美姬 said...

hi,

lucky you to beat me to that!

many friends asked me why i bother to buy a "spare" speaker which does not sound better than what i have. i told them this - imagine you are happily married with a beautiful wive. one day, you bumped into your first love and sparks fly and thunder strikes...hahaha, pardon my melodrama but that's exactly how i feel with the apogee stage.

anyway, the seller wanted me to commit there and then which was difficult for me cos i haven't even seen/heard the speakers.

fOr the price, you should really treasure it. hope you have many hours of musical pleasure listening to the apogee!

Anonymous said...

Hi there again, I'm the 横刀夺爱 guy two comments above :-). Well, thanks to Mr Anonymous in comment #1, I tipped off my friend who was looking for the Diva all his adult life, and guess what? We auditioned it yesterday and he bought it!

This is the same friend who got me interested in Apogee, and now he is going to sell his Stage (cream colour without stand). Well, if you are still looking, I'll get him to contact you.

Ha ha, this story is turning out to resemble a TV soap opera ...

maggielurva 愛美姬 said...

hi 横刀夺爱 guy,

wow! so much twist and turn.

yeah, desmond has written to me and we are talking.....