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Good Stuff Cheap

I thought maybe a thread like this may be useful. How about a listing of equipment that's cheap and performs WAY beyond expectations. To qualify, the item must be under $500 (new or used)for an electronic component and under $100 for wire. Try to include comparisons to other equipment.

I'll start off with the Musical Fidelity X-Can Version 2.0. Not as a headphone amp but as a pre-amp! I was noticing that some headphone amps can double as a pre-amp and the X-Can sounded pretty good thru my cans so I went to Radio Shack, got an adapter and ran the headphone output into the rest of my system.

Oh my! Detail, warmth, dynamics and musicallity like you read about. All for $250....NEW! Replacing the standard wall wart with the MF outboard power supply ($195)tightened things up even further. Looks funky with the "alien rectal probe" coming out the front, cables attached. It only has one input, but man does it sound good! As good as my Transcendance & Rogue 66.
1953

Showing 1 response by sean

sean
6,231 posts
 
I have to agree with Krelldog and have said this many times before. The Forte' amps are excellent for the money and smoke far more expensive units with ease. If you look around, you can find the 1's for as little as $325 with the others typically going for at least $100 more than that. For the record, i'm speaking about the model 1, 3, 4 and 6, as these are all that i've owned. Can't speak for the 5 or 7's, although the 7's should be fabulous ( monoblock versions of the 4's ) and the 5's shouldn't be any type of a slouch. Like anything else though, they do require system matching for optimum performance. I know of no other line of amps that i could recommend so heartily for the money. Just keep in mind that these are NOT "slam" type amps, just very sweet, airy and musical. Sean
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