seanheis, which Gemtune 1501 do you have, the one with 6bq5's or the 6AD10's? I was thinking about one of these but went a different way when a reasonable Tandberg 3012 popped up. Always wanted to hear one of these Tandbergs, stupid good at $250 because it was a little dirty, cleaned up, now a strong 8-9/10 cosmetically and sounds great!
I once picked up a pristine Proceed PCD-2 for $400, thought that was stupid good for the money, never should have sold it (that never should have sold it list gets longer and longer)........
Good product for the money ?? I just had Johnny Walker on the rocks, glass 3/4 full mind you , and shot of decent tequila and a soda and beautiful young Chinese bartender serve me for 12 bucks . Now that is stupid for the money .Plus gave me something to think about on the way home !
Kef 107.2 for $1400.00 Martin Logan CLS-llz for $850 - with new(ish) panels and the old ones Mirage 750's for $200 Cdn - great speaker for the money! Adcom GFA 555 mk ll for $300, sounds pretty good. It drives the ML's pretty well and sounds surprisingly good for a low end "high end" amp. The one I like the best is the Cary SLP-03 I got for $1000 about a year and a half ago. I love it!
IFi iPhono preamp. Unbelievable sound for the money.
Also I just picked up a pair of mint Spendor SP1's for less than $900 ! They look brand new and have midrange to die for - like Quad ESL 57 good. Just beautiful sound. They are keepers......
Joe Curcio upgrade for the OTL amps in the Acoustat Monitor 4 E-stats from the late 1970's. The increased speed, openness of the soundstage and base extension were unbelievable. Paired with one of the most neutral preamps, the Audio Research SP-10 Mk2, a system that still satisfies today.
Genesis APM-1. Drove from L.A. to Albuquerque for the used pair. $1500.00. Their plate amps have been up and down. Eventually, I'll get one of those new big ass SVS subs for 2 G's and call it a day.
Quested Speakers H108 Studio Monitors Passive. Its stupidly priced. It can walk over Giants! The Clarity and Soundstage with the soft dome tweeter is utterly convincing.
Eminent Technology LFT-8b loudspeaker (the highest-value new speaker currently on the market). Used Quad 57's. Townshend Rock Elite Turntable (my current), AR XA Turntable (my first good one). Decca Super Gold Pickup (my current), Decca Blue (my first good one). Magneplanar Tympani T-IV's (my current), Tympani T-1's (my first good ones).
MFA ’Venusian’ 3 chassis octal tube based preamp. An un-labeled prototype, seemingly with a unique circuit.
The bottom box is a 40lb power supply. Chock full of NOS(ish) rare and expensive Octals, matched low noise quads of red base RCA on the phono amp, etc.
Procured for.....$108.37 on an eBay auction.
One can’t even buy a thing like that, let alone find it on eBay for that kind of money.
Of course, this was an accidental bargain, not something that anyone could have bought as a regular item.
Genesis Physics model 7s - about $75 new in 1984. Still have them, never refoamed. What a set of tweeters! (See Human Speakers) Oppo DV-980H - $83 used including S&H in 2015. Got me into hires. Shure V15 RS. Still sounds great with original HE or SAS styli.
I bought a used 5 shelf Symposium Isis Ultra Rack with TT shelf last December for $3,300. A real game changer that justified the cost vs performance of the entire system. http://www.vpiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8479 Two tweaks - A sapphire thrust pad and ceramic bearing, and a tonearm rewire with Nordost Valhalla 2. $195 and $150 respectively. They each brought super improvements and collectively pulled my VPI HW-19 MKIV TT out of the stone age. http://www.vpiforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4881
XTZ Master M2. $1,600 - but worth way way more and as close to sound balance and perfection as a bookshelf speaker can achieve up to $10,000. No more produced, no world stock available, not a single one available on second hand market. One regret: not have purchased a second pair.
Benchmark AHB2. $3,000 - just one of the very few best amps in the world in every aspect, and even more so for pound per sound. A near zero fault lifetime product and an audio benchmark.
to bigfresser- i purchased new back in the late 70s the advent for 269 and rogers ls3/5a for 495. what a steal even at new prices. went through many used tube amps along the way, but kept both the advent and the rogers 30 years. regret selling both now.
geoffkait, "Fulton Nuance floorstanding speakers. New from going out of business sale for $250. I’m not hot doggin ya. Replaced my Quad 57s. Never looked back."
The automotive correlation: sold an 87 M3 for an 89 Celica. Never looked back...
I'm dating myself.... Advent receiver used as a preamp. It had an outstanding phono section, Apt-Holman preamp section and very sensitive tuner. I got it new for $165.00 and it smoked preamps costing 10x more!
I combined it with a beautiful Quad 303 amp $165.00 and found a used pair of Rogers ls3/5a for $350.00
Still have the Rogers......nice little system for very stupid money now
"I have now listened to the 1.7s for almost four months, and I can say
with confidence that they are worthy successors to the 1.6s, the
speakers I have long thought (and often called) the best buys in
high-end audio.
"
This is probably the opinion I most agree with from any reviewer. The cost of these speakers as a percentage of the total outlay for my gear is laughably small. $2,000/$28,000. Is that a pretty good bang?
The Paisley Research AE500's I found several years ago on CL for $75 was beyond stupid good, it was more like stupid f'in amazing! Definitely the best speakers I've ever owned. Bettered the $1400 Omega Grande 8's I had at the time and they retailed back in the late 80's for $900. Really great value if you can find a pair, sonically on par with ProAc Response 2's and Celestion SL600's I believe....
Also, all of the Fleawatt stuff from Derek Sanderson is stupid good for the money too....
Emotiva XPA-1L monoblocks, about $850 for the pair. The first 35 watts are pure Class A. Every tweak I throw at the system, and I seem to find one every week, yields better sq. So, I have not yet found the limits of the system. The blocks drive a pair of KEF LS/50s and the sound is so clean, with gobs of detail, bloom, and punchy bass.
I will add that I've been working hard on the system for over a year and have learned that taming room acoustics also yields a lot of bang-for-the-buck. Buy ASC tube traps if you can find them.
Klispch Herresy and a pair of LA Scalas! The Herresy's started me and The LA Scala's stole my heart for the price! With H.H. Scott 222 tube amp, the LA Scalas sound amazing!
Paradigm Signature S1 v2 for $800. The beryllium tweeter is pretty special and the speaker is so small and unobtrusive it totally satisfies my living room requirements. Flattest frequency response I've ever seen in SoundStage reviews.
Logitech Squeezebox. $299 ea. Transferred my whole iTunes music library to any system in the house...plus, internet radio....plus digital out. New Sierra 10.12 operating system doesn’t load up though. Help!
Infinity Renaisannce 90 speakers. Paid 1500 used. Drove from Pa. To S. Carolina to pick them up. I will never sell them. Renaissance 90's Audio Research LS25 Aragon 8008BB Oracle Delphi MKV/Rega arm/Goldring cartridge Audio Research CD3
I must share a couple more... McIntosh MC2105 in very good shape, with the wooden case for $390 including shipping, here on Audiogon. It was open for bids with no reserve and slipped through the cracks. Pioneer Elite CLD-79 Laserdisc in mint condition with the remote control (original price $1,600) for $40 at a used books/music store.
Due to the way I build my audio component collection (frugal & patient) most of it is stupid good for the money.
But two components stuck out as Surprisingly Stupid Good. One was a Denon DVD9000 (~$3000 msrp new - $300 to me used); I couldn't believe the sound improvement over my other reasonably high end Sony on regular CDs.
The second was a Music Hall 9.1 turntable with its' stock Goldring Eroica LX mc cartridge ($1000 to me). I was utterly blown away by the improvement over my aging Thorens and Technics.
And then there's my speakers which are a variety from the defunct Meadowlark Audio co. There's loads of better speakers but I don't believe many could be had for what I paid for these that sound more satisfying (to me at least).
Stupid good..... yeah, these are mine B&W DM2a's which I bought for just 75,- Euro. They sound incredible. Important when you choose speakers: you must not get tyered. Checking: use dixyland music. Due to the mix of instruments you can check how prominent these are specific in low volume range. Note: Most speakers will perform quite good on higher volumes.
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
