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BANG for the BUCK

For most of us it's all about value. Except for the relatively small number of folks who can afford not to worry about how much things cost.

For the rest of us it's all about the price/performance ratio. How much did you pay for what you got in terms of performance? The bang for the buck. I have found some excellent values over the years. And some terrible ones as well, alas. If we look at each class of components and various price points, what good and bad values have you experienced along the way? I'll give a few examples from my own experience to get this thread rolling. These examples are just for starters. They do not represent a complete list. If more come to mind I will add them to the thread later.

My caveat is that my comments are subjective and refer to my system -- and YMMV. I am only speaking for myself and my system here.

In the realm of DACS -- Antelope Gold, AMR DP, Berkeley 1 and EMM CDSA SE are in my price/performance dog house. My current NAD M51 takes the price/performance prize. It is the only DAC that has, so far, given me good value.

In the realm of speakers -- Merlin Monitors and Joseph Audio Pulsars represented good value for my system. But my current Raidho C1.1 monitors take the price/performance prize.

In the realm of cables, power products and power conditioners -- Gabriel Gold and Synergistic Research Tesla Series and Speaker Cells, Interconnect Cells and power conditioners are in my price/performance dog house. David Elrod and Shunyata cables, and the Shunyata Triton power conditioner take the price/performance prize.

In the realm of tweaks -- some of Jack Bybee's products, Schumann resonance devices and Audio Magic products take the price/performance prize.

How about you and your system? What stands out in terms of price/performance -- on both sides of the ledger?
sabai
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
In the realm of amplifiers -- my Atma-Sphere S-30 takes the price/performance prize.

In the realm of preamps -- my Audio Horizons TP 2.3 takes the price/performance prize.

In the realm of power regenerators -- my Monarchy Audio takes the price/performance prize.

In the realm of transports -- my PS Audio PerfectWave takes the price/performance prize.

In the realm of tweaks -- Kemp products also take the price/performance prize.
jrinkerptdnet
430 posts
 
Based on the current used prices:

Forte 4A power amp
Audible Illusions M3 preamp
Samadhi Acoustics Ichiban speakers
Naim CD3 disc player
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Usually what's owned is considered an exceptional value when it comes to performance. Who wishes to be considered a fool who overpaid to achieve good sound?

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,317 posts
 
What Doug said.

Price is easily quantified. Performance......not so easily. Its highly subjective. So there you go.

FWIW, I put my current rig with the big OHM F5 speakers in place with the goal of no compromise in performance but keeping budget to a minimum to accomplish. List for all the parts involved is between $15-20K. Buying used, on sale, applying trade-ins, it ended up costing me significantly less than that.
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
Douglas_schroeder,

It is always with hindsight that we revise earlier opinions. It is not a matter of being considered a fool -- unless one's ego is that important. If one considers a decision foolish, with hindsight, then this can lead to improved decision making. For me, the music and what gets me there is the most important thing. Making mistakes and learning from them is essential to the process of getting one's system to a higher level. And yes, sometimes one pays too much, in hindsight.

Mapman,

Yes, this is necessarily a highly subject discussion. But the point of this thread is simply to try to help others make better informed choices, hopefully -- by giving others an idea of what values -- good and bad -- we have discovered along the way.
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