What was your best (and worst) audio purchase for the dollar?

[gwing]

Best - A little Alientek D8 'Direct Digital' amp with xmos USB input and STA326 for it's heart. This cost just £80 and, when playing well recorded and simple acoustical music , can still make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Thoroughly enjoyable but after many years of pleasure it is becoming unreliable now. Also a budget 10W per channel Audio Innovations integrated valve amp which was simply magic compared to anything at 3x the price.

Worst VFM- Probably an SME V tone arm for my record deck. Not that it wasn't a really good tone arm but allowing for inflation it would cost £6000 in today's money. Also a big Rotel 6 channel power amp which despite it's claimed 60Wper channel was completely lacking in dynamics compared to the above 10W valve amp.

 

[johny_2000]

Some people say that - and I guess in some cases it is true. But I have a small room, no treatment, but carpeted, curtains and fairly crammed with furniture (including kallax on the back wall which breaks up reflections)

EQ makes a significant difference.


And in any case, you can use the Umik during the installation of treatments to see if they are having the effect you want, and adjust if not. So not only for EQ.

Okay, I ordered UMIK-2 today. Let's see what I can measure with my current setup.
P.S. My room is also carpeted / furnished.

 

[CPTX]

Best
Fiio/Jade Audio JT1 $69 headphones and a Walmart iPhone dongle $3.

I purchased these for my daughter….and I swear, I just wanted to break them in by listening to them…also to make sure they weren’t faulty.

Well, they haven’t left my ears, and won’t until she gets back in town from University in a couple weeks. Easy, don’t need any EQ, extremely fun

Worst

Some horrible Harman Kardon five disc player I bought in the mid 90s. The tray mechanism broke within six years?

 

[CPTX]

Honorable mention for best:
BIC Venturi V62 speakers. Purchased in 1987 with money from mowing lawns....so couldn't have been expensive. Driven hard and regularly to this day. The top end brightness is easily tamed with EQ. Don't really need a subwoofer with these as the bass and mid range is good....but a Kali LP 6v2 powered monitor speaker or a Dayton Audio MKSX4 sub (see below) complements them nicely.
Onkyo integrated receiver purchased at about the same time. She's been relegated to the garage and some of the little lights stopped working a decade ago, but she keeps on trucking
Sony all metal portable CD player purchased in 1984? still works flawlessly to this day with simple battery changes and rare cleaning.
Dayton Audio DSP-LF for $60 and the app for $5 extends and smooths any subwoofer it touches
Dayton Audio MKSX4 subwoofer. $100 in a smaller room. Fast, tight bass....but with the previously mentioned DSP, she isn't afraid to get low with sustain.

All the DIY speakers and other DIY projects (speaker stands, etc). The enjoyment of building and customizing something is priceless.

 

[Mr. Widget]

Worst

Some horrible Harman Kardon five disc player I bought in the mid 90s. The tray mechanism broke within six years?

That was likely a record, most of them probably failed much earlier.

 

[CPTX]

I was being nice....it may have been sooner.....tried to erase the experience from my memory.

 

[Weeb Labs]

At the moment, my Motu 896mk3. I purchased it several weeks ago for €50. It has 28 inputs and 32 outputs including two ADAT IO banks, two SPDIF banks, 14 analog outputs and 8 analog inputs. Connected to Element via FireWire, I can route and perform any desired DSP with a total system latency of less than 4ms.

This is definitely my best purchase in recent times.

 

[Smarty]

Best: (used) Accuphase Preamp that I bought in Japan and brought it to the states with me
Worst: (used) Parasound DAC I really didn't like it so much I threw it away. A $150 SMSL DO100 totally outperformed the Parasound which was made in the USA

 

[Angsty]

That was likely a record, most of them probably failed much earlier.

I had two Sony changers that failed within 3 years. I then bought a NAD changer which has lasted at least 20 years.

 

[Mr. Widget]

I then bought a NAD changer which has lasted at least 20 years.

I assume because you discovered streaming.

 

[Sal1950]

I had two Sony changers that failed within 3 years. I then bought a NAD changer which has lasted at least 20 years.

Changers, whether CD or LP, were always buggy little SOB's.

 

[dalbert02]

Good:

• One of my first systems was an Adcom 545 with KEF Q90 speakers and a Sony ES series CD player with a volume knob. It sounded pretty amazing to me in the early 90s especially since I bought it all used at Sound Advice for about $1000.
• B&W 801s with Krell KSA (or KVA?) 200W amps. Rock and jazz were amazing.
• Subwoofers I built myself with drivers like SEAS ROY, Eighteen Sound 18" , JBL, and Eminence LAB series 12" and 15". If you know how to build a solid wood box with proper dimensions you can build a GREAT sub at a low price.
• Crown XTI4002 and XTI6002 amp for subs. Lotsa power, good enough DSP, and cheap on eBay. Runner up would be the XLS series from 1500 onward.
• Cary Audio 300B mono-block amplifiers. They are simply astounding on vocals, they can give goosebumps and raise the hair on your neck. For rock or dance or hip hop they are worthless...but with female vocals, I've never heard better.
• VPI HW19 Turntable with ET linear tonearm.
• Cables I build myself with Neutrik connectors and Belden cable. Long-lasting and sounds great, and CHEAP.
• Air conditioning duct board as a room treatment. SUPER CHEAP!
• Craig Pro Gold contact cleaner/enhancer for noisy volume knobs and interconnects and CHEAP!
• Dynamat for lining the inside of speakers, vibrating furniture, and even some electronics
• Don't laugh at this one, but a BBS Sonic Maximizer for cheaper systems can make them listenable. It is like a bass/treble booster but can help in certain situations when used in moderation. Maybe not for the purist, as many people say they just add noise, but I've had a favorable experience on some cheap system that sounded mediocre.
• Polyimide horn tweeters like B&C DE250 or PRV Audio D290Py are extremely clear and precise, in my opinion better than many SEAS and ScanSpeak stupid expensive drivers.

Bad:

• Too much to count! I won't lie, I was a sucker for Stereophile's cheaper recommendations for many, many years.
• Radioshack portable CD player as a Hi-Fi transport
• Straightwire speaker cables and interconnects and other expensive cables I am ashamed to admit I purchased with enthusiasm
• Various cable risers, pucks, weights, equipment isolation feet, etc.
• Velodyne subs - they were ok but not worth the hype
• Green CD pens/mats
• Expensive tubes
• Njoe Tjoeb CD player
• Audio Alchemy products were ok but nothing special
• I bought a bunch of Schiit gear because of aesthetics and I wanted to love them but sonically they were only okay to me
• Radioshack minimus speakers sucked
• Emotiva UMC - when it worked, it was good but unfortunately kept locking, freezing, and made buzzing sounds
• Parasound Z series stuff - only okay
• Marantz home theater - only okay - not bad not great just does the job
• Various power conditioners - they never seemed to do much for me

 

[JeffS7444]

Benchmark DAC2 HGC could've ended up on the "Naughty" list, because the firmware that shipped with mine was awful: Hefty DC output at power up/down, demonically possessed volume control which once or twice, ramped up to max, standby mode which did nothing but switch off the front panel lights, while the unit ran hot, and so on. Worse, firmware updates cost me $$ each time. Think it took a couple of updates before I felt I finally got the polished product I thought I was getting in the first place, but why is a perfectionist unit costing 2K USD not as well-behaved right from the start as a Behringer device costing a fraction as much?

(Dis)honorable mentions:

Logitech THX computer speakers (Z-2300?). I think I impulse-bought them at some really low price, probably listened to them for less than a couple of hours, and because they weren't worth the cost of returning, either gave away or parted the things out. Recall thinking the satellites sounded terrible, but maybe the sub could've been repurposed.

Fostex Kanspea DIY speakers: Cute, easy one-afternoon project, but sounded more like a portable radio than hifi. Was delighted to find someone who had been seeking the very things, so off they went!

Musical Paradise MP301 Mk II tube amplifier: This kinda hurt, because it really was nicely finished, and I thought it might be just the mini amp I thought I wanted. Too bad it hummed so much. Thought I would try and improve it, but the circuit boards had been assembled in situ, and there was no way to extract them without a lot of desoldering. A work in progress, sold as a finished product. I dropped it off at a thrift store rather than attempt to resell it.

 

[MaxBuck]

Upon further reflection, every Black Sabbath album I purchased in high school has to fall into the "worst" column.

 

[Graham849]

Atoll preamp. Great headphone amp, lousy preamp.

 

[JohnnyAudio]

Best:
Various ESS AMT's
DBX 234 crossover
DBX 510 subharmonic synthesizer
Allen & Heath XONE 92 ( I have 2! )
Decware SE84UFO tube amp
TAD TSM-300 speakers
Lii full range drivers
Elekit TU-8400 tube amp
Thorens TD-125 turntable
Denon DCD-900NE CD player

Not the best:
Fluance 85N turntable
Dayton SA-1000 sub amp
Phillips 212 turntable
EV Eliminator PA speakers

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[Chr1]

Best:

All Gumtree or Ebay "Collection Only":

Crown Macro-Tech 1200 Poweramp (x4)
Excellent unmarked condition. In high quality flight cases. £200 (Listed under "Fishing Equipment". Sweet.)

Technics SU-C100M2 Preamp
Technics SE-A1000M2 Poweramp
(Came with expensive audiophile interconnects)
Excellent unmarked condition. £200

Lazarus H-1A Hybrid Poweramp. £100

Various pairs of Tannoy V12s. £80 - £300

My most expensive (but still one of the best), is a pair of Neumann KH310s, bought new a couple of years back. £3200
My cheapest, but also one of the best is MathAudio RoomEQ DSP software. Free (with Foobar2000)

Worst:

Several overpriced, bad(ish) measuring DACs. One with valves, the other swapable opamps. Can't remember the exact prices or names. Thankfully no more than £200-£350 each iirc.
Bought prior to discovering ASR.
Both sold and replaced with Toppings.
(E50, DX3 PRO, D50.)

Thankfully I didn't have much in the way of funds prior to discovering ASR.
Definitely would have spent a lot on questionable audio woo if I had.

Phew. Thanks ASR!