When I got back into seriously listening to music about 7 or 8 years ago I was completely overwhelmed by the shear quantity of audio equipment available. I knew that I would go dizzy and most certainly broke trying to indulge in countless combinations of equipment to suit my taste. I took a different approach and listened to what people had to say about value, reliability, and of course sound quality. I did more homework than I probably should have and excluded some brands that I shouldn't have, but came up with three names that folks were always pleased with: Parasound, Bryston, and Pass Labs. Great solid state equipment (I'm too cheap to keep replacing tubes) and all within a particular price range. There were a few outliers in my rack (i.e. the Marantz 8005 SACD player) and they've all disappeared except for my Simaudio phono stage. I started at the bottom of the price range (Parasound) and as the stock market has increased my net worth (thank you NVIDIA), I've "stepped up" to see if I can make improvements. Bryston has been a pleasant improvement, but Parasound is still a steal. I really don't think I can improve on the JC 2 BP for anywhere near it's cost. Someday, I may be in a position to afford Pass Labs equipment and drool over what I've been missing.
For what it's worth, I did the same kind of reasoning with a turntable purchase (the Avid Diva II SP rocks!), tonearm (the SME 309 tonearm replaced a Rega RB303 and was one of the most dramatic improvements in my system), and cartridge. The AT-ART9 replaced an Ortofon 2M Black. The 2M Black may be a better all around cartridge for any recording, but when the AT-ART9 strikes a groove that it likes, I'm listening to a live performance. It can be that good.With respect to speakers, same old story on how I came to Focal. I love the way they sound, but couldn't be more disappointed on reliability. A broken voice coil wire on a woofer followed by the same problem on a tweeter on the opposite speaker before the pair was a year old. Warranty took care of the problems, but I was informed I was at the end of being covered. Any further issues would be viewed as abuse of the speakers and I'd have to pay repairs. If I move on to different (better?) speakers, Focal will be scratched from my list of 3 companies.
Well jafant, there you have it. The very, very, very long story of how my mix and match system came together. I didn't address the Bryston BCD-3 CD player. I like it and probably won't look for anything better. The only downside has to do with no remote control. It can be purchased separately, but is too costly.
Whew! I haven't written this much since my last college history class about 25 years ago. Not complaining, this helps keep me going =)
