Audiophilepure

The LM1s are world-class cost-no-object loudspeakers in every way. The LM1s embody an achievement in design, engineering, craftmanship, and most of all, sonic performance. Lorenzo Audio Labs set a high benchmark for all others to be measured against. Sonically speaking in my system, the LM1 are as good as it gets. My twenty-five plus years audio search for reference loudspeakers is over. Regardless of cost, I told Visintainer that I’m keeping the review pair and wrote him a check. Hats off to Miguel Lorenzo Castro for creating this masterpiece.

Cut to the chase. First impressions were highly favorable. The LM1s sounded musical from the very first note. Presumably because of the rigid, lightweight, high-efficiency drivers, the LM1s sounded super dynamic! It was astounding. The horn loaded tweeter and super tweeter were indeed very special. They sounded open, open, open. The sound was fast, transparent and extended, totally musical, sweet, and engaging. As good as my reference Vimberg Tonda D was, it was no match for the LM1s. They’re a game changer. I said to myself they better be superior as they cost about three times as much as the Tonda Ds. Tondo D is an exceptional loudspeaker regardless of the cost, and it competes with loudspeakers that are much higher in price. Of course, the higher we go up the ladder, at some point there’s a diminishing of return. But listening to the LM1s was a revelation. They were involving and rewarding with all types of music. You don’t need to go back and forth to compare the two. What can I say? The LM1s are in a class of their own. The LM1s rendered music brilliantly and effortlessly with solidity and proper weight delivering a transparent and resolved midrange, and a treble presentation that was impeccable with an exceptional richness of overtone and proper timbre. When done correctly, there’s a magic in speakers that use a large high sensitivity single driver. I think it is superior to using multiple smaller drivers. A large driver moves air differently, effortlessly, and produces more realism and ease with weight and solidity. 

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.