What speakers have you mistakenly let go and then later repurchased?

Much to my chagrin…Thiel CS 3.5 and Magnepan MMG. As Joni Mitchell once remarked, “ you don’t what you’ve got till it’s gone.”

Currently I have a pair of MMG back in my setup, the eventual return of the 3.5 will come when the stars, the moon, and my wallet aligns. 

@bdp24…

After I had my first pair of MMG’s I moved up the line, the .7, followed by the 1.7i model. To my humble ears the .7 presented better than the 1.7i - although either model possessed the Maggie magic.

One of the issues I have with Maggies is their size - when I had the 1.7i’s I got a weird fright one morning as I was coming downstairs. In the shadowy, fuzzy morning light it appeared that two people were standing near my stereo. It was only for a coupla’ seconds but…  I have seen the Tympanis up for sale once in a while, and at what appear to be bargain prices. Alas, I don’t have the room for anything that size in my space. (14 ft wide, 24 ft long with a ceiling that goes from 9ft to a 17 ft apex.) 

I just connected my just received Schiit Modius DAC to my Aurender N100H server. 
(See the pattern here?  I always start out in the cheap seats and move forward if I like what I tried.)  I have to be mindful of the fact that the Jolida FX Glass Tube Dac is an older piece of equipment, exactly how old I don’t know. I felt that I had too many tubed components altogether, so I decided to come up to date with a current model Dac. (The Belles 250i Integrated’s preamp is tubed, and my Pro Ject turntable uses a Pro Ject DS tube phonostage) Don’t get me wrong, I like tubed equipment. The first piece that started me chasing the hi-fi dragon here was a Cayin A50T integrated.

I actually purchased a Mytek Liberty Dac off of USaudiomart after researching a few, but I could not load the required drivers onto my iPad so that, unfortunately, didn’t work out. I over-spent my budget with the purchase (used) of the Aurender, so the budget for my Dac shrank accordingly. I narrowed down my search to Mytek, Benchmark, and Schiit. 

I decided upon the Schiit Modius for a number of reasons, first and foremost being that it was brand new direct from the manufacturer. It is also “plug n’ play” like the Jolida was. I operate the Aurender and Qobuz through my 9th generation iPad,  the Mytek, and from what I got from research the Benchmark, would have had me use a laptop. For all intents and purposes I will be using the Aurender server way more often than I’ll be streaming Qobuz from it.

Anyway…with all fairness accorded the old and still 100% functioning Jolida, my immediate impression is that this is probably the best $229 I ever invested in my stereo. It is a remarkable improvement. I don’t want to imply that the Schiit is “warmer” than the Jolida, but the tracks - by different artists - that I use to judge stuff by displayed better separation, better depth, and perhaps a buffing of the treble in tunes that had previously sounded a little “etchy” to me. (“Crocus” by Ani DiFranco for one, “Cyril Davis” by Ginger Baker for another) I never minded the “etchy” treble I sometimes caught on those tracks and others before, but I noticed a definite difference playing through the Schiit.

The sonics are SO improved with the addition of the Schiit that I haven’t even bothered to employ the subwoofer. (The MMG’s go down to 50hz, which some people may feel ain’t too deep)  This is real good.

I know all too well myself’s past pattern of starting out with an “economical” piece, then moving up the product line. Right now I’m really happy. The next model up the Schiit Dac line is the Bifrost, roughly six hundred dollars more than this.

That’s gonna be awhile…

I have to apologize to the op for going off in a different direction on my previous post. For the record, I’ve had three pairs of the CS 3.5 Thiels; my nephew has my first pair, the other pairs I sold off here and elsewhere for a number of misguided reasons. I had Thiel CS 2.2 and CS 2.3 prior to the CS 3.5 - and up until the 3.5 each was a step in the right direction. The 2.3 improved upon the 2.2, the 3.5 vastly improved upon them both.

I sold my last pair of the 3.5 to fund the purchase of the CS 3.6, assuming that the difference between them and the 3.5 would be equally significant to my previous experiences moving up the Thiel food chain. The thing that the 3.5 does so well is present everything at low volume, while the 3.6 managed to achieve that only at volume levels that I just don’t listen at. Anymore, anyways.

I think that I sold off my pairs of MMG to fund a Thiel purchase. Now that I’m back with them I know I’ll be holding onto them. I’m awaiting a pair of Magna-Riser aborne stands for them as I write this  At the moment I have them raised up three inches on a pair of maple amp stands that I never really need because the 6+ foot wide Salamander cabinet where my stuff sits is pretty dense enough. 

I know I’ve said this before, but I’m hanging onto my MMG. 
 

It took quite a while for the Magna Risers Airborne stands for my Maggie MMG’s to be built and shipped to me, and kudos to the company for what was exemplary communication throughout the wait. They care. 
 

I cannot state that they improved upon anything beyond the aesthetics of the stock Maggie stands, but this is by no means a knock. Those flimsy, Caspar Milquetoast stock stands are an abomination. 

I sold off the REL T5x because I rarely used it. These original model MMG’s won’t do Zeppelin justice, but they more than suffice for the genres of music that I listen to now. From what I’ve been reading about the new model LRS+,  it may be worth my while to place an order soon. Until then these ain’t moving.