Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/major-minor

The Major, too, works best with a minimum of 18in clearance from the back wall, but you can just about get away with flush placement. With both speakers, fine-tuning involves the usual Apogee four-step, juggling tilt (using the screw-in spikes), toe-in, fore-and-aft placement and left/right positioning. What’s important for those who might consider the Minor due to its suitability for small rooms is the optional stand, which adds a few inches to the height but adjusts the tilt for nearfield listening.

My main concern with these speakers involved the amplifier selection. Using the familiar battery of sources – Lyra Clavis cartridge, SME V/Oracle front end, and CAL and Marantz CD-12 CD players – I spent most of my time swapping amplifiers, trying hard to find one which wouldn’t drive the Centaurs. Let me tell you something else: nobody has heard what an Apogee can do unless they’ve used valves. And, as we all know, this has been denied us due to the hideously low impedances of the full-range models. A Croft Series 5, Radford STA-25, a 35W/channel from Woodside costing roughly the same as a pair of Minors and some 100W monoblocks from Ray Lumley, drove the Minor to adequate levels – and the Major.