Around 20 years ago, I went to my dealer to audition the Stax 007 Omega II headphones. They sounded great, so I ordered a pair along with the Stax tube amplifier/energizer. When I got it into my system, it did not sound nearly as good as what I heard in the dealer's setup. When I asked about that, the dealer informed me that I auditioned the headphones while they were being fed by a Kondo M-10 linestage, which, of course, sounded much better than anything I had (or could hope to have). that is why it makes my list.
Although I am primarily a tube-electronics person, I would not turn down a Lyra Connoisseur phono stage. I heard the most explosively dynamic and vibrant analogue playback in a system having that solid state phono stage.
