Biggest "pleasant surprise" components you have owned?
When I have owned ARC, Magnepan, Conrad Johnson and most of the "big names" you can think of...all of that ownership came with expectations and mostly those expectations were met. From my journey the somewhat surprising components,...and thankfully there have been a few... were the Nakamichi SoundSpace 5 I bought for my youngest son, a Mitsubishi tuner, an old NOS ADC-XLM cartridge, an early Winegard (sp?) outdoor FM antenna, some "mainstream" units from Sony and Pioneer that were better than expected... And isn't it nice when a product surprises you?,.....kind of an audiophile present. I would enjoy hearing of your surprise components. In our overpopulated, overpriced and problem filled world it is always good to hear of humans that have experienced pleasant surprises. Thanks for your input. Also, I apologize for, perhaps, doing a few too many posts...with this Covid lockdown, boredom has found me. I am also extremely concerned of how many great small businesses will not survive this time in history, especially some of the best locally owned restaurants in most towns. As always, I apologize for any typos and/or spelling errors.
Marsh Sound Design A400S stereo amp, 200 wpc, bought used seven years ago for about 40% of the new price. It sounds really great and has served daily in my desktop system with a pair of Harbeth P3ESR.
Allo DigiOne SPDIF output card for the Raspberry Pi. That, a Pi, an iFi iPower supply, and you have a great streamer for way less than $200.
I was most impressed with the bi-amped JVC mini rig for 9.5 years of college. For me, of course the JansZen Z-410 ESL's I still enjoy for $240 new from the world's best dealer.
When I was younger and very into hard 70's rock. I bought a David Hafler 500 and JBL L250 ti speakers. I'm older now and have hearing aids. I have Revel Salon 2's, Jazz, Folk, etc. I tell my grandkids about the "old days" and having to walk 10 miles in the snow to see Deep Purple.
Hegel H390 integrated... bought one in as a demo with no real expectations and was wowed. Wife too. Pleasantly surprised. Overall power cables in general as well. Still blows me away that they can make such a difference.
the parasound z stuff is just crazy good for the money
the z amps sound great, but you can't ask them to drive anything lower impedance needing current, the units have minimal heat sinking and go into fail safe mode before long
I never could have thought a single driver speaker can deliver the way these do! No matter what I use upstream the Charney’s work their magic and sound wonderful!!
Not that it matters, but I have had some of the same experiences with cars. I expected some of the expensive exotics to be fast and fun, but there were a few value cars that were darn good.
My DIY Helix Power, Interconnect and Speaker Cables.
YES - I consider them just as important as components
My DIY journey started around 10 years ago with some pretty standard cables using bulk wire and pricey connectors.
Then after reading many articles I experimented with a more complex Helix Geometry design.
Despite comments that often ridiculed my knowledge (or lack thereof) - "My Ears" told me different, so I kept pushing on, ignoring the pretentious rhetoric of others, that my DIY cables should not be taken seriously.
Over the past 4 years I have been fortunate to have lots of very positive feedback from others that tried them and experimented with different wires and insulations, each time improving on their surprising levels of performance.
More recently - I have been told (many times) that the DIY Helix design, using the current formula of metals and insulation choices has elevated the Helix line of cables to a level of performance that rivals many of today’s top brands costing much much more.
Pleasantly Surprised? - yep - every time I update my cables ! :-)
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