Of all your gear, what piece impresses you most?

Knee-jerk reaction would be my Tannoys, but I've been a fanboy of them for a while now, so it's no surprise I love my current Canterbury SE; I expected to be impressed.

I'd say I've been most surprised & impressed by my preamp, the Rogue Audio Hera II. It's also surprised me twice: first when I got it (used) as an original I (almost 6 years ago), and then a couple years back when I had it upgraded to II status.

I bought the Hera on a leap of faith, and it was awesome; a hugely audible upgrade from the 99 Magnum (which itself is a nice pre). That started a big electronics/analog upgrade run in the rest of the system that's lasted years. At one time I was even set on swapping out to another excellent preamp, but ended up gravitating back to the Hera.

Agreeing with general consensus, my choice components are an equal integral part of the whole. Recently my amplifiers have decided to not work with the team (family) so they were relegated to stand in the corner....
...... which had not rectified their un-cooperation. Stay tuned...

My system all came together when I installed the Atmasphere Novacron monoblocks. But for that to happen the rest of the system had to be wonderful.

(Dealer disclaimer)

My speakers which are a one-of-a-kind 2-way using a 15" paper cone woofer designed in the 1940's, an aluminum horn also designed in the same era, and an Altec compression driver from the 1970's. Any combination of these drivers would probably sound pretty decent, but what ties it all together is the crossover which uses some equalization to tweak the response. In my admittedly biased opinion, this speaker combines some of the best qualities of vintage speakers such as Western Electrics (musical tonal balance with sometimes startling dynamics) with modern audiophile qualities (high frequency extension, detail, imaging). This speaker also has a wonderful coherency---despite the very different drivers it sounds like a single driver. The roughly 98 db sensitivity also allows use of low-powered amps.

If I had to, I could live contentedly with other turntables, other electronics, other cables, etc. but these speakers are a necessity!

I'm most impressed by my Grace F8 cart by a bit over the NSM sub. The Grace presents my vinyl in musical ways that surpasses previous carts, from Grado wood-bodies to ZYX. When I read about the setup and integration issues folks have with their subs, I feel lucky to have a sub and manufacturer support that was so easy to place and have a seamless sound with Fostex driven main speakers.