Insanely Expensive....and Worth Every Penny


There are many threads which discuss things like "80% of the performance at 20% of the price", how overpriced certain components are compared to others, and how some components fail to hold their value on the used market.

So here is a cheerfully optimistic question:

What component, accessory, set of speakers, or tweak have you purchased - preferably new - that was wildly, insanely expensive, and in your honest opinion really WORTH IT?

Something that was delightful to own, and demonstrably superior to anything less expensive...

(I hope this is not a very short thread.)
cwlondon
Conrad-johnson MET1, a vacuumtubed, 6-channel preamp. WOW does it ever sound good, and 'only' $7K RR!
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Bought my Linn Sondek new in 1984...NO REGRETS...play records with it nearly every day.
Linn Sondek is insanely expensive, or for that matter a CJ? I guess in 1970 when I bought Infinity ServoStats for $2100, I thought that was insanely expensive.
The Music First Audio Reference and the MFA Baby Reference along with 2 Halcyonics Silencers. All were very expensive and I think worth EVERY CENT!!! These pieces are a huge part of why I am able to extract the type of sound that makes me want to listen for hour and hours w/o end :)
"Insanely expensive" is all in the eye of the beholder I suppose.

I bought a pair of $6000 Bel Canto REF 1000m amps used for ~ a 40% discount compared to new. THis is the most I have ever spent on a single piece of gear (actually 2 monoblocks).

Given my needs, I would say this was worth it.

I suspect I could have gone with similar amps from Wyred4 SOund for significantly less and gotten much of the performance needed, but decided in this case to not cut corners. Normally, I would upgrade a component more slowly over time to avoid overpaying.