Your greatest high end audio purchase!!!


My audiophile journey has extended to over 40 of adventurous sonic delight. Over the coarse of my over 40 year journey as an audiophile, like so my others, I cycled through a multitude of speakers, amps, cables, etc,. Now that I’m an old guy, I’ve pretty much settled on my "End-Game" audio system for the long haul, primarily because I simply love the way it sounds, and also because, at this juncture, I no longer have the will, nor do I have the desire to continue the crazy (but fun) merry-go-round of audio components in and out like I did in years past (my spouse and my wallet thank me). When I look back on all the high-speed audio gear that I’ve owned down through the years, and after giving it much insightful thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that, after everything was said and done, my beloved Revel Salon 2 speakers were my overall most pleasurable and greatest purchase of all. What was yours?

kennymacc

Easy one for me. I purchased a used PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC for an extremely reasonable price. Ok it was a steal. Everything was fine until I would stream songs in different formats (flac, then dsd, then aiff). Each time it switched formats there was a very loud POP through the speakers. It concerned me enough that I contacted PS Audio. The rep on the phone was very helpful but couldn't resolve it over the phone and suggested I send it in. So I packed it up and off it went. They ran through a battery of tests and found nothing wrong. So back it came but upon hooking it up there it was again. Another phone call and back it went. This time Ted Smith took a look, another round of tests, and the call came back that everything was functioning as should with that unit. They were going to send it back again but I took a shot emailing Paul McGowan and explained that although the unit sounded amazing when playing music it was the transition that I thought could ruin my speakers and I would probably have to sell it and look at another brand. Paul immediately responded that he would look into it. Shortly after, he responded again and said he had met with everyone involved in the troubleshooting and said they all came to an agreement. Would I be interested in straight up trading the Perfectwave for a brand new Directstream? Are you kidding? I didn't even buy this from you. I got it used for a small fraction of what you wanted new. Paul's explanation?  "You are part of our audio family now."

Who gives customer service like this?!? Amazing company.

Magnepan Tympani 1-D's and a Mark Levinson 23.5 started it all for me 25 years ago.  I later went vintage with a Marantz 7c, 5's, 8b, 10b, SLT-12, driving JBL Hartsfields.  My favorite system of all~

A pair of Focal Sopra 1 speakers brand new in the box with stands for $5000.00. Won’t ever sell them unless I become a full time nomad. Great sound and they always make me 😊 

I'm inclined to say my best was the Apogee Duetta II speakers I bought in 1988 and had refurbished a few years ago.  How many audiophiles can be satisfied with the same speakers for 35 years? 

Shortly thereafter I bought my Classé Audio DR-7 preamp, which may even be better and remains the preamp in my main system.  It's dual-mono--left and right volume knobs, no balance knob--and uses an array of discrete resistors instead of potentiometers for the volume controls.  It also has a knob which can select stereo, mono, reverse stereo, right-channel-only or left-channel-only--very useful for troubleshooting and for musicians such as myself.

Mine wasn’t my endgame system but my first system a pair of Monitor Gold 200 and a Naim integrated amp.

My system now is similar in only I still believe an integrated is the way to go!

Mola Mola Kula integrated 

Lampizator Baltic DAC highly modified with VCaps, Audionote caps and resistors.

Auralic Ares G2.2 streamer

kubala Sosna realization cable loom

2 JL Fathom F212 subwoofers and one Jenson iso-max transformer

to hook it up to the Kula in a crazy way!

degiter internet switch.

10 stillpoints aperture panels for room treatment.