Your greatest high end audio purchase!!!

Best was a phono stage - a John Curl Vendetta that sounds better than anything else I have listened to (except a Herron VTPH-2 which was pretty much a tie).

Second best was a Sugano made Koetsu Urushi.

Third best were speakers - Wilson Maxx 2 (with a very different sort of runner up - Martin Logan CLS)

Like many of you my journey started years and years ago in the early 70's.  It was a hobby started by my father and continued by me.   The biggest improvement in sound as a result of a purchase that I can remember was adding a McIntosh C27 preamplifier to the pre-out jacks of a Marantz 2325 receiver.  At the time, I was using AR3a speakers and with the addition of the Mac, sound just seemed to jump out of the AR's in a way that was so fresh and clean (circa 1979).  Not sure how many audio purchases I've had since then, likely +40 or so, but nothing has made that big of an impact, all at once, that I can remember.          

Monitor Audio PL500 II speakers

Jeff Rowland 735 mono-amps

Without a doubt, my wife’s wedding ring. She "allowed" me to keep my hand-built 6’-4" Alpine white speakers in "her" Living Room, and a revolving door of boxes, cables, blinking lights and things that made (mostly good) noises.. Just to demostrate how much she loves me, she gave me permission to relocate her framed, signed musical score by Barry Manilow. It was positioned at an an early reflection point in the room and degraded the sound quality.

But, I’d say that the most unexpected, impactful component I ever audtioned in my home in "later life" was a Sutherland phono stage. I had no idea until that day just how much music was being left out of those cheap and/or internal phono stages.

My vinyl rig --  VPI TNT HRX fitted with a Graham Phantom arm mounting a Koetsu Rosewood Signature cartridge with a custom Gingko dustcover.  Feeds a Manley Steelhead phono preamp.