The Apex Symphony Arrives Thursday, September 3
Sacramento, California
Apex Stethoscopes will release the Apex Symphony on Thursday, September 3, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. Pacific. The Symphony is our flagship instrument, the first Apex stethoscope built around a true open bell, and it launches in eight colorways.
We built it as two things at once.
The first is a tribute. When the stethoscope was invented in 1816, it was a hollow cylinder held against the chest, which is to say it was an open cup. The bell came first, and everything after it was built on that foundation. Two centuries later, it is still the best tool we have for low-frequency heart sounds, and the low end is where many consequential findings reside. A third heart sound. A fourth. The mid-diastolic rumble of mitral stenosis. These are the sounds that change the plan of care rather than confirm what you already knew walking into the room, and they sit in exactly the range a firmly pressed diaphragm works against. The industry has spent the last few decades refining the double-sided diaphragm, and it has gotten very good at it. We wanted to put that same effort into the bell.
The second is that a tribute shouldn’t look backward. So the Symphony launches in eight colorways, seven of which you won’t find anywhere else: Siren Red, Supernova Orange, Neon Yellow, Aurora Teal, Electric Blue, Nocturnal Purple, and Power Pink. The eighth is black, because we didn’t reinvent black.
We believe the Symphony is as good as any stethoscope on the market, at any price, and we have been waiting a long time to put it in your hands.
A note from the founder
I’ve mentioned the bell here before, and I said there was a stethoscope in the works built around it. This is it.
The short version of why it exists: most instruments on the market now handle the low end by asking you to press lightly on a diaphragm, whether that’s a single tunable head or a two-sided one carrying an adult and a pediatric diaphragm. That approach works, and I’ve used it for years. But it puts the filter in your fingertips, and it tells you nothing when your pressure is off. You don’t hear the S3. You also don’t hear that you missed it.
An open bell doesn’t ask that of you. Set it down light enough to seal, and it does the one thing its shape was made to do, whether or not your technique is sharp at hour eleven. That’s the whole argument, and the longer version with the evidence behind it is in Do You Need a Bell on Your Stethoscope?.
I’ll add one thing that surprises people. I spent years in pediatric intensive care, and plenty of instruments solve the small-patient problem by putting a pediatric diaphragm on the second side. I’ve never preferred that. On a small chest, I want the bell.
Here’s the honest catch, and it has nothing to do with size or cleaning. A bell only pays off if you rotate to it. If you go a year without turning the head over, you’ve bought a side you never used, and a single-sided stethoscope would have served you just as well for less. We can give you the capability. We can’t make you reach for it.
Availability
The Symphony goes live Thursday, September 3 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific at apexstethoscopes.com. All eight colorways will be available at launch. The Apex Harmony remains in the lineup and is not being replaced.
If you’re on the email list, you’ll get the link when it opens. If you’re not, this is a good moment to fix that.
Apex Stethoscopes is a Sacramento-based medical device company founded by Sam Jaquish, RN, CCRN, MBA, a critical care nurse with a background in cardiac ICU, pediatric intensive care, and EMS. Apex sells direct, runs no affiliate program, and links no affiliate networks.
