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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
big_greg
6,655 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
3,676 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.
celtic66
1,671 posts
 
+1 Dueland DCA16GA interconnect.  Unbelievably great for small admission price.  Big Ear Stereo sells bulk for way cheap.
213runnin
914 posts
 
Bang for buck.  Would have to be the Schiit Audio Modi Multibit.  Dac bliss that beats all of the Chinese Toppings, etc. that are made in China and still cost more than the Modi.  
oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl
3,924 posts
 

If you asked me last week I would have said, and probably said in the past my Quicksilver Mid Monos are the best bang for the buck. Great amps, awesome value new....incredible value used like I bought mine for $1050

 

However I just replaced my preamp with a Zesto Leto Preamplifier....  $3500 is not cheap , but I had the opportunity to buy a NIB  new old stock unit and it is incredible....   Easily the best money spent on hi fi in a long,long time.   Literally sounds like I revamped my whole system, its that good.  Zesto support is top notch too.

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