Equipment that has made you 'stop' looking?


OK we all know what a merry-go-round audio can be. For those of us who are incessant upgraders, what components have you found that either have stopped or seriously curtailed your search for better?

For me its my Audio Tekne Cables and my vintage Classe DR3 amps (25 wpc high current class A design designed by Dave Reisch in the early days of the company). My Green Mountain Audio Continuum 3s would probably fall into this category, but I would probably buy the next statement models that Roy Johnson builds sight unheard.

Kerry
Ag insider logo xs@2xmusicfirst
Cary SLI-80 Signature w/ NOS tubes. Damn, I'll bet it's almost as good as the DK!
My Mark Levinson 33H monoblocks, and my Revel Studio speakers were the perfect match for my modded Wadia 860.
I sold my Levinsons in a weak moment, and have regretted it ever since.
Now I will have to wait for the prices to drop (if they ever do) to find another pair.
Let that be a lesson!
Haven't seen a component to make me stop shopping. My tubed Pre-Amp does have the nicest tubed H/P amp I've ever heard, though. Is that going to make me stop?
I was very fortunate, while in my hunt for a affordable amp,
I heard and eventually picked up an Sar Lab Mos 400 amp.
I have now built my system around it....no regrets.

I took alot of flak from audiophile friends because this amp isn't a "big named product" but hearing is believing...
Shimmery highs, mid-range to die for...devastatingly good bass, only a cd player upgrade and Behringer DCX-2496 in my future.

Dave
Magnepan 3.6R driven by Wolcott P220 mono amps. This combination seems to get everything right in my listening room and with the genre I listen to most, Classical and jazz vinyl.
Poweramps: Antique Sound Labs Explorer 805 DTs, 50-Watt Single-Ended Triodes that sound fabulous driving my...

Speakers: Quad 989s. Full-range, point-source electrostatics that define coherency.

Preamp, 6-channel: Audio Refinenments Pre 5. All analog, no processors. VERY clean and big sounding.

Speaker cable: Audioquest silver-conductor, DBS-type KE-6 and KE-4. Six pairs of 4-nines solid silver in 5 different gages, netting 10-1/2 gage. These used to be a double-biwire set but now they're simply in parallel driving the Quads. Best I've ever heard, but I don't get around much.

Denon DVD-2900 DVD player. Such an improvement over my entry-level Pioneer universal player my jaw dropped.

The power-and preamp have been recapped, and I'm about to do that to my Denon DVD-2900 DVD player.
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Well, my Reference 3A MM DeCapos have been in my system longer than any other component and I don't actively look at speaker ads with any kind of intent, so I guess they qualify.

I was luck enough to buy a perfect pair about 3 years ago for $1000. I just can't imagine finding a better deal on another pair of speakers, so I've basically quit looking.

Now, when I move into my new home in a year and have a much larger listening room, all bets are off!

Enjoy,

TIC
Everything in my system is as good as I can afford/appreciate except (maybe) a more expensive (better?) cartridge at some point, but I'm not particularly even jonesing for that right now!