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Best "Bang for the Buck" you have owned?

Yes, the CJ ART, various Audio Research were all great...but I do remember lower priced items that gave much pleasure for their price.

In no order, The Large Advent,  DQ-10, Nakamichi SR receivers,  inexpensive Nordost cables, many tuners giving good vibes vis "FREE" music.  Also, in a different way, the Nakamichi TM radios and SoundSpace systems. 

There was a solid state ARC pre that was very good....ls-12?

And I do  remember "free" listening at some friends homes/systems that were great values. I was exceedingly lucky to have a best friend that bought most of my gear when I was "moving on".  It gave me the chance to listen to what I had had compared to what I currently had....at least once what I had sold to him was better than what my replacement gear was...........the old "live and learn". 





whatjd
mglik
889 posts
 
Hard to choose just one.
But initially, I thought: what can vibration control really do?
Found that the answer is A LOT!
Stillpoints under my $30k speakers turned them into $50k ones.
No exaggeration, 3 $125 Ultra Minis tightened up the sound and increased the detail like crazy.
And I had a similar experience with the $1500 SRA VR platform under my Woodsong Garrard 301. Amazing improvement. Night and day!
jl1ny's avatar
jl1ny
396 posts
 
Newly acquired REL T-Zero Mk3. Best price to performance piece of gear ever! It’s literally taken my rig to the next level.
jj228's avatar
jj228
23 posts
 
My Best Bang for the buck so far has been my McIntosh C28 for $800.00.  I hope to beat that soon on something new.  I've got some Vandersteens on the way (2Ce sigII's). I gave $1400 for them, but if the reviews I've read are accurate, it might be in the running.
big_greg
6,567 posts
 
I have to add this.  I bought a Technics SL 1200 MK2 for $600 that came with a Zu Audio Denon DL-103.  The cartridge sounded like crap and at first I thought it was just a bad match with the turntable, so I put something else on and put the Zu in the closet, where it sat for months.  Out of curiosity, I recently decided to the cartridge on another table.  It sounded like crap there also, lots of distortion in one channel.  I sent it off to Andy Kim who worked his magic on it and for less than $500 I have a cartridge that is in the same league as other cartridges I own that cost from 2-4 times what I spent to have the ZU DL-103 brought back to life.  Big props to Andy Kim!
tweak1
3,561 posts
 
2 years ago I bought a custom amp from Tweakaudio.com It's a dual mono class D based on IcePower AS1200 modules, which he then sprinkles lots of pixie dust on. 1200wpmodule at 4 ohms. Not only is it powerful, it also allows for very delicate instruments/sounds to have a fantastic presence


Incredible detail from top to bottom, throws a believably large sound stage with fantastic imaging (when combined with great speakers) through my Emerald Physics 3.4s open baffle which, sadly, are also out of production

If you don't need massive power he has moved on to other class D amps that he says sound even better.
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