What's your best audio "find"

A mint pair of Marantz Model 9s with original boxes, manual and performance cards for $2500.

A mint pair of Marantz Model 9s with original boxes, manual and performance cards for $2500.

Nice, Ron!

During the same period in the early 90's that I mentioned in my previous post, I also found (through local classified ads) near mint pairs of Marantz 2's and 9's, for about 1/3 of the amount I ended up selling them for. Both were all original except for tubes.

Most likely because of some aspect of their condition, I couldn't get the 9's to sound quite as good as I would have expected. The 2's, though, were definitely among the better sounding amplifiers I have ever heard. I'm still kind of kicking myself for selling them, although they were not quite powerful enough for my purposes (especially in triode mode, in which they sounded best), and they were worth too much to hold onto given that I wouldn't be using them most of the time.

Best regards,
-- Al

Auvio interconnects. Sold at Rat Shack $16.95 per 1 meter pair. Unbelievable soundstage and very neutral. What's not to like...30 day return if you don't like!!

1. Radio Shack "Fusion" cables (precursor to Auvio's mentioned above), loose on rack with paper tag for $14.95 - that was only about half price, but they sound better to me than all the other ICs I have on hand, some costing 20x more.

2. My brother's Thorens TD150 MkII collecting dust in his garage - FREE.

3. Radio Shack Auvio cables. Like Md Mike, bought some these too and they are very good for under $20.

Hi Al, I thought my pair of 9s sounded good though I didn't listen to them very much. I was always afraid something might go wrong with one of the amps or they might accidently become damaged. I sold my 9s for four times what I paid, but of course they dramatically went up in value shortly after selling. It's the story of my life with stereo equipment.