Equipment that has made you 'stop' looking?

I must say that I seldom find much from major manufacturers that excites me. The little guys seem to have the passion that moves them toward excellence. Obviously, I have had instances where I thought something would cause me to stop looking for speakers or amps, etc., but soon I was looking again. Now being in my 70s, I have a new thought, namely that I might have the last speakers, amp, etc. I am still looking and listening, however.

van den hul "the first" cable used as a digital interconnect.

warm and terrific soundstage.

Dcrugby, my only problem with First was ground loops given its high resistance.

Atma-sphere S-30. Fabulous sound and able to get a jumper to lower the gain, which gives me more fine-grained control of the volume on my pre-amp.

Stopped looking, but I am saving my pennies for the upgrade from MK II to MK III.1

you know tbg, i had read about that potential before i bought them so i made sure that i bought the first "metal screen" and it seems to do the trick. no hums anywhere (i don't use tubes, for what that's worth), except when used on a cable box and, in fact, it probably exhibits less hum there than any of my other digital cables. i went with glass optical for that anyway, though.

this is from the vdh website:

>>The major difference between the members of our “The FIRST ®” series is their shield series resistance; Our The FIRST ®, The FIRST ® Ultimate and The FIRST ® Metal Screen progressively exhibit a lower shield resistance. (Respectively: ~14, ~4.8 and 0.0049 Ohm/m.).

[...] The FIRST ® Metal Screen with its lowest shield resistance has been specially designed for those situations where excessive ground currents flowing through the cable shield are present (e.g. with some tube equipment), in complex grounding situations and/or where extra shielding against strong external electrical interference is required (e.g. in highly electrical noise polluted areas). <<