Centaur with wood finish – I’ve never seen one in the flesh, but I really like this look.
Above: in a small 3×4 meter space, and too close to the rear walls, the Centaurs don’t have perfect bass nor very large imaging, but they still sound impressive.
Above: MRTW’s in less than perfect shape (my own speakers), probably stretched out due to pointy fingers, however audibly there was nothing wrong with these tweeters.
Above: single-wire terminals and two switches: one for treble, one for bass. A bit fiddly but doable.
JW, my closest friend and listening buddy, has owned Centaurs for as long as I know him ( some 15+ years at the time of writing) and although these are by no means the best that Apogee has made, nor are they the easiest to handle, he has always believed in them. With lots of TLC and even more patience, he has managed to really make these babies sing. Their weak spot is in the bass of course, but if you can forgive that, then they are simply fantastic performers.
The Centaur was the medium sized model of the Centaurus ribbon hybrid range. It used an 8″ dynamic woofer and a 26″ ribbon tweeter. This hybrid range enabled users to experience the clarity and spaciousness of a ribbon tweeter, and with the ordinary dynamic woofer instead of the current hungry planar bass panel, they were considerably easier to drive.
stated in this article. This is what I paid for a pair new in November 1991.When first introduced the msrp was $1495.00, per Apogee’s own spec sheet.