what are your top "audio bargins" in your system history?


It is great to have all the money you need to have the best and endless upgrading.  But what about the components you've had that were inexpensive that turned out to be favorites of yours?

jusam

I was stationed in Germany where we could buy audio equipment at a substantial discount.  I bought a pair of Infinity RSIIb speakers that were simply superb.  Sadly, on a subsequent move in Germany—a decade later, they were destroyed when the  mover’s truck had a hole in the roof and they were soaked to the core.  I wanted another pair, but my lovely and very supportive of my audio addiction wife wanted something less dominating in the room, so I went for the Infinity Modulus satellite subwoofer system in 1992.  Just replaced them last year with Fyne F702s.

A Gustard R26 I paid full retail for ($1600) last year was the best bang for buck I've yet experienced in my system.

About 5 years ago I had a search bot app for Craigslist.

I had it watching for Magnepans.

After about 6 months the right deal came along... a pair of mint, SMG's with magnariser stands for $250.

Although the app had done it's job, I left it to continue searching. 2 months later a pair of mint 1.7's had popped up, so I grabbed them for $500. The owner had gotten a promotion that required he move to Chicago immediately. He was selling a spacious house and moving into a tiny, expensive condo in downtown Chicago.... no place to put the Maggies.

Mine wasn’t a component at all, it was the about the $98 or so I spent buying a fiber transmitter receiver and cable to install in the Ethernet line just before my bluesound node. Wow what a difference! If I’d spent 5 times that much it’d still be a bargain. Now I’ve upgraded to an Esoteric Network Player and still use the fiber. Still wow, just a bigger wow! 

I found a Pioneer Elite CD player at my local Goodwill store for 5 bucks, sure I spent 11 dollars on a remote on EBay but it’s still a great deal, thing is built like a tank