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

[cistercian]

Best: My avatar, JBL 835SRX passive 3 ways. Do you want to rock hard? Excellent. Have money for for an attorney. 135DB+!!!
Sennheiser HD 600...incredible on sale for 238ish dollars.
RME ADI DAC2 FS. Expensive. Worth every penny and then some.
Crown XLS2502 amplifier. It drives the JBL speakers perfectly! Cost per watt? LOW!

Worst:
Bose 301 speakers...no bass, no actual treble. Not bad for a AM radio though if used for talk.
TASCAM 200BT:useless and vestigial analog audio out, both RCA and phone. Makes for
a nice transport...but an expensive one!
Koss PRO4AA Headphones. Heavy. Uncomfortable. Poor highs and lows. My first "good" phones
that my mom got me for Christmas as a teen. I had no idea...at all...until I bought my first Senns how poor
they were.

 

[jkasch]

Best: Selah Audio floorstanders. 10” Aurasound radial neo woofer, 7” SS Revelator mid, Fountek ribbon. Have kept me happy for 13 years.

Worst: Harman Kardon HK990 Integrated amp and matching HD990 CD player. After about $3,000 into purchase price and several repairs they both ended up in trash. They sounded great when they worked.

 

[rgdawsonco]

Best:
Logitech Squeezebox Duets, these have been my whole house streaming devices for years
Klipsch Cornwall IV’s, (I seriously love these)
All my Denon AVR’s
Squeezelite-X (free for everyone but me)
A used stereo I bought that came with a BMW 550 attached

Worst:
some goofy thing that was supposed to turn my phone into an IR remote. Dumb idea.
A laserdisc player right when DVD came out
A betamax just before VHS took over
A mini disc player just before the digital/streaming
A DVD recorder just before that became obsolete

 

[mjh]

Best:
Sennheiser HD580 - Best purchase overall. Bought new around 20 years ago for $150, as I recall. Still going strong. Just replaced the headband again this week.
Vandersteen 2ce - Bought used in NYC for $300 (due to minor 'cat damage' to the 'socks'). Sadly could not bring with me to Japan. Not beautiful design, but they simply sounded good with all my music.
Pioneer S-CN301LR - Andrew Jones-designed bookshelf speakers with real wood veneer, now discontinued. Don't think they were ever available in the U.S.. Natural, if slightly warm, tonal balance with surprising bass extension for their tiny size. Very inefficient though (81db).
Topping E30 - Amazing sound for the price (thank you ASR!) and a great way to combine disk and data/streaming playback. Love the remote volume control option, since my integrated amp doesn't have one.
Audio Technica AT-VM95ML and AT-VM95C - Both great on my Ariston RD90/Rega RB250. I don't feel any real need to upgrade record playback beyond this. ML has more detail, of course, but the C is a great deal, too.

Worst:
Etymotic ER4S - A strong NO on both sound and fit/comfort. I'm just not a fan of IEMs in general though.
Dragonfly Black - Lower output then the worn out V1.2 I planned to replace and no obvious improvement in other areas. Yes, it works with smartphones, but I don't see any advantages over an Apple lightning dongle. Happily I bought used and resold immediately.

 

[Kachda]

Best deal as of recently- A pair of brand new in box Monolith 10'' THX Select subwoofers. $600 for the pair delivered.
For that price I couldn't resist. They exceeded my expectations, so it was a good deal.

That's an amazing deal, do you mind telling me where you got it from ?

 

[MGG]

Best:
MC5 - Kick Out the Jams
Gang Of Four ‎- Entertainment!
The Slits - Cut
Magazine - Real Life
The Fall - Live at the Witch Trials
The Damned - Strawberries
... (too many to list, all sub €5)

Worst:
Asus RP-N14

 

[Slayer]

That's an amazing deal, do you mind telling me where you got it from ?

Sure, I got them from a semi-local audio dealer( installer ). He got them from one of his customers who he had done a home theatre install on one of his homes. These were for another one of his homes, but the gentleman had Unfortunately passed away before the job was done.
Naturally his wife canceled the job and sold most his audio gear. ( sad story I feel for her loss )

The dealers installer himself bought these off the woman for $700 I believe. seeing that they hadn't even been opened. He actually had them advertised for their regular going price of $499 each. When i saw the add and noticed he was only about 75 miles from me. I contacted him and it was just days before Xmas, we negotiated the deal. Seeing that i have made purchases from the dealership prior and being Xmas, he offered to deliver them. So I was buying them from the installer, not the dealer, but I trust both, so I didn't have any concerns.
As you can imagine i was pretty happy, and i let the dealer know what a good guy he had working for him.

 

[peanuts]

worst product ever are these hawthorne silver iris open baffles, the most fatiguing sound iv ever heared at home. the designer insisted i was wrong lol.

 

[flyzipper]

Best... like some others in this thread, the UMIK-1 and MiniDSP 2x4HD (bought together) are my best purchase for improving the enjoyment of my home theatre audio (getting the bass right... or "right" for me)... and, with REW, as tools for learning about how audio interacts with a room.

An honorable mention goes to the Google Play Mini as a cheap hands free kitchen speaker that easily integrates with my music streaming service... it gets used multiple times every day. Oh... and Chromecast products are just amazing for their cheap utility too.

Worst... I don't regret the experiment, but the HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro as a Pi-based Roon end-point (subscribed for a year and then let it lapse).

 

[mononoaware]

Best = Creative SXFI Air.

Took a gamble on this headphone since it was on sale for around ~$99.
Uses DSP processing to emulate the experience of listening to speakers in a room.

What I hear is not exactly what is claimed, but it is very impressive.
Sitting in-front of speakers with the headphones on does not give the impression the sound is coming from the speakers.
But the experience is something unique and interesting, the headphones make you think you have a very big subwoofer in the room.
The sound is so impressive (YMMB) that it is one of those "too good" experiences.
I have actually been avoiding listening to the SXFI Air since it kind of takes away from all other experiences of listening to music.

If you decide to try out the SXFI Air, make sure you update to the latest firmware, and play lossless (FLAC) files direct from the Micro SD card which you can insert into headphones.
And also do not worry too much about the ear shape "calibration" using camera, just do it once and it is fine.

Creative must be using good quality drivers and amplification, the sound is so enveloping and free of artefacts.
This is one of those examples where DSP is used best.

Only negatives I can think of is only ~10 hours battery life, and some difficulties in getting around the App and setup etc.
I recommend using the PC software to transfer SXFI profile to headphones.

Also I just use "shuffle" mode and listen to audio at random from SD card, but you can get the "player" app and select songs from SD card using the smart phone if you want to.

 

[weasels]

Best: Dekoni foam tips for Sony WF1000MX3s. Cheap, comfortable, fixed the problem of the seal breaking because they are heavy for IEMs.

Worst: Samsung soundbar for our TV. All midbass. Dialogue is unintelligible.

 

[Chrise36]

Best:
ATC SCM40 used for 1400€
Audiophonics NC250 Monoblocks
Beyerdynamic Custom Studio
Worst:
Sony Minidisc

 

[dkinric]

Best - At the end of 2019 as Hypex amp modules were showing up, someone on ebay was selling white goods Hypex modules. White goods are legitimate products meant for sale in another channel. These were likely meant for some manufacturer producing finished branded amps. Anyway, got a brand new NC252 Hypex board and was able to purchase an amp kit for it online - an enclosure and all the correct wiring - and put it together myself (I have only minimal electronics experience). Total cost - less than $400. Somehow, has worked flawlessly since.

 

[Marc v E]

Best:
1) a 1 euro 2nd hand cd
2) Beolab 9
3) Sennheiser hd 650

Worst:
1) audiophile cables
2) audiophile magazines

 

[carsknivesbeer]

Best:
LS50s (used)
Etymotic ER4XR
Soundforge
Spotify
In-line attenuator for DT1990
Rythmik L12/L22
Anything I bought for less than 25$
SL1200 (the only constant for 20 years)
All gens of Ipods

Worst:
Porsche Space One (really uncomfortable)
HD58X (bought the 6 series)
Grado SR125e (hated them as a teen, still do)
IEMs that aren’t Etymotic (AKG N30, KEF M100/M400, MEE, Final Audio) because they don’t fit in my ears
Audio Technica AT-M50x (Uncomfortable, sound signature)
Electro Harmonix Gold EH6922 (sounds worse than the regular one)
Monitor Audio Radius 90 (5.1 rears all make the same bullet sounds)
Yamaha S-300 (goes to an external DAC anyway, 300 sounds the same as 20)
Pioneer XP-30r (meh)
Airplay Express (Airplay<Chromecast, super finicky)
Buying a HT receiver without XT32 pre Covid

 

[raindance]

Best: Magnepan MG1.6QR which I kept so long they died of old age

Worst: Magnepan .7 - just too dull in my room. Even the old MMG outperformed them.

 

[Gorgonzola]

OK, here goes ...

Best:

• Zaph Audio ZRT DIY speakers: extremely good (-sounding) speakers for about 1/2 of what one would pay for commercially finished.
• VTV Purifi stereo amp: amazing resolution, transparency, and dynamics for cheap.

Worst:

• Phase Linear 400 power amp: an atrocious sounding amp typifying the worst in late '60s solid state
• B&W DM7 speakers: dull, lifeless speakers with no dynamics regardless of the power fed to them
• Bel Canto eVo2 integrated amp: Ok-sounding Class T (Tripath) amp, simply 'way over priced.

I have to amend my "Worst" list by the addition of the Pioneer CT-F900 cassette deck I owned for while.

This POS had clutch problems almost from day 1. It would run for a few minutes, then shut down. I had it supposedly repair a couple of times but it continued to have that problem which rendered it useless. Finally, not wanting to inflict it on anyone else, I just through it away.

 

[Kachda]

Best:

- KEF R3
- March Audio P502
- MiniDSP SHD
- outlaw rr2160 (sold but it was great value)
- Sony WH1000XM2 (great for commutes/flights)
- KEF Q100 (before it was replaced by R3)
- Klipsch promedia 2.1 (gave me several years of good fun when I was a poor student before but I’m not sure I’llenjoy the sound as much given the better equipment I’m used to now) sold

Worst:
- KEF egg desktop speakers (just muddy and unclear, with terrible boosted mid bass), returned
- Peachtree Decco (whining sound on left speaker), returned
- Bluesound node 2 (spotify connect would keep getting interrupted, could not get LAN shared music recognized, couldnt get trigger out working) Sold
- Onkyo receiver (forgot model number). Crapped out during firmware upgrade within a year, but since it was bought in a different country I couldn’t get warranty service

 

[Spkrdctr]

Best: lately was a Crown 1502 amp

Worst: Any audiophile magazine. Another but it's free that is VERY BAD, is watching any non-testing review on YouTube!! PURE GARBAGE!

 

[Atratusnex]

Best:
Akg k702 (great with eq, wide soundstage, good comfort for me)- eq oratory 1990 harman with less bass modification)

Koss esp 95x (quite resolving, very fun with eq oratory 1990 harman)

Motu m2 (great feature set at its price point) - needed to separate data and power with usb split cable- data to pc- power to separate power supply, got 48 v phantom mic out without never reliable to work, device often crashed, now everything is fine this way.

JDS labs atom (clean, powerful, clear, just what I want)

genelec 8030a (just a pleasure to listen to, I'm still so happy with it, that i never even wanted to buy any other loudspeaker since I bought it)

meizu dac ( usb dongle with high enough voltage / a lot of clean power for its price point, the best bang for buck if you need a mobile DAC amp combo)

Worst:
colorfly c4 pro ( user interface straight out of hell, strange construction, bad performance with low impedance headphones)

Audio quest nighthawk without eq ( very narrow soundstage, bad imaging still somewhat aggressive and muffled at the same time)
but quite good with eq . - oratory 1990 optimum hifi

Beyerdynamic t5p gen 1 ( very odd sounding, broken fr, strange and uneven bass response)

Teufel Aureol Massive (muddy, very poor resolution)

Sony xb 500, xb 700 (bassy mess)