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

[Liya]

Best:
Genelec 8030C
RME DAC ADI-2
Sennheiser HD650
JDS Labs Atom+

Worst:
Avi DM5, Avi DM10, Avi DM12.
I guess most people here are from US so less likely you will ever have a chance to hear this crap. I bought all 3 models seduced by business owner (Ashley James, ex ATC sales manager) and his never ending lies on how good his speakers are. When I bough first pair (DM5) I couldnt belive how mids heavy with no bass the speaker can be. I wanted to return them and he said I cant return as they are custom made. So not wanting to lose money I went for double the price and bigger DM10 hoping I will get more bass. No joy. I got BK sub and they were now better. But I was constantly fiddling with eq and the sub was only good at the listening position and not so good in other parts of the room + the veneer on my pair had some stains/discolouration (which was investigated and replaced by the company). Sold the sub and when Avi announced they are making bigger DM12 I bought that for £3000. Little more bass, but mids were just as bad as always. The bass and treble controls at the back of the speaker could not help.
I sold them and the nightmare is over.
The DM12 had some problems with the veneer but the company was closed for good and I couldnt get them fixed.
All 3 models sound signature was very close to ATC small speakers efforts. (I compared DM10 side by side with ATC SCM11).

Second worst was Auralic Aries streamer. Piece of junk that never worked as it should with another arogant owner as an unwanted bonus.

 

[Liya]

Best
AVI ADM9.1

Beautiful active speakers with built-in DAC + preamp, analog + digital inputs and remote control. They basically cured my audiophilia nervosa and have been all I need for 12+ years now. Only recently I started to go down the measurements and EQ path, but even then I can’t really see them go very soon. A groundbreaking product at the time and still a joy to own.

One man's dream is another man's nightmare
For 7 years, I lied to myslef that I like Avi but they are just as wrong as the man behind them.

 

[Rednaxela]

Shame you were unable to EQ them effectively.

 

[pma]

My best audio purchase for the dollar: Topping D10s DAC

 

[Liya]

Shame you were unable to EQ them effectively.

Coming from ATC I thought back in 2015 that Avi's are godsend - way cheaper with amps, dac and remote for £1500 (that's what I paid for DM10) - and with very similar (to ATC) sound signature.
But something was always wrong with them. My all time 'just sounds right' piece of audio gear was HD650 and so I was looking for a pair of speakers with the same qualities... and I found that with Genelec 8030C.
I am not sure why Ash ever compared his Avi to HD650?

DM12 were £3000.

8030C + RME + HD650 all new for £1900.

btw. you can't effectively eq Avi because of their directivity issues.

 

[Gorgonzola]

Best, Passlabs X150.5
Worst, Lindemann Musicbook

The contrast in Customer service cdnt be greater. Latter is serving as an expensive paperweight.

Humm ... Pass Labs X150.5. I owned one for a number of years and generally like the sound -- until I discovered something better and cheaper.

The price new of the X150.5 was US$5500. I did buy mine used for "only" $2500 plus expensive shipping, taxes, brokerage. The good thing is I recouped a good chunk of this when I sold it after 5 years or so. (The good news in general about buying reputable high-end brands used is that you can recover much of what you paid when you sell.)

However my VTV Purifi 1ET400A-based amp, $1500 new, is more detailed & transparent, dynamic, and has better deep bass.

 

[Mnyb]

Audioquest Caldera speaker cables a very bad decisions when i was younger, just a scam .

 

[Booker]

Best:
TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero IEM

Worst:
iFi iPurifier S/PDIF Digital Audio Filter, Dragonfly Red, DIY (not by me) RCA interconnects

 

[antcollinet]

Another worst,miniDSP flex,measured nicely as is,measured horribly after loading the filters,went for refund the next day (last week).

Interestingly that might be my best - or second best ever purchase.

 

[Open Mind Audio]

Best:

Oppo UDP-205. I got one at retail in the final batch sold before discontinuation. Still use it almost every day - currently as DAC, disc transport, and preamp. Incredible piece of equipment someone will have to pry from my cold dead hands.

Original Sonos Amp, 2006. It wasn’t a great piece of audio equipment, but it changed the way my family listened to music forever - and we listened to tons more music because of the Sonos. It got me started on a digital library (now at 6 TBs), streaming, and ultimately the pursuit of a better digital chain.

Worst

Sonance Sonamp 260. I’m sure it was a decent piece of pro equipment when I bought it used, but it was a case of the user and use-case being a terrible match for the kit. I hoped it would improve on my Sonos amp in a bedroom setup. It was total overkill for the setup, the balance adjustments had to be done with a screwdriver, it was heavy as hell, had trouble triggering on, and the sonic juice was not worth the squeeze.

 

[Sokel]

Interestingly that might be my best - or second best ever purchase.

Measure it with the xover filters and EQ loaded and you might change your mind.
Not even the cheap analog crossover (that was my intention of using it) which I posted was that poor,at least this 35 euro poor thing was constantly over 94 SINAD and that with my VERY poor conditions of measuring as I always do trying to replicate the worst scenario.

 

[antcollinet]

Measure it with the xover filters and EQ loaded and you might change your mind.
Not even the cheap analog crossover (that was my intention of using it) which I posted was that poor,at least this 35 euro poor thing was constantly over 94 SINAD and that with my VERY poor conditions of measuring as I always do trying to replicate the worst scenario.

What specific measurements are you unhappy with? Noise? Distortion? Frequency response? Something else? What did you get?

 

[Sokel]

What specific measurements are you unhappy with? Noise? Distortion? Frequency response? Something else? What did you get?

SINAD in the 80's,THD+N vs level and Freq were all around the place (in it's working freq,limited by the filters with sanity),crosstalk way higher that unloaded (that's logical).
It's not entirely it's fault,as a DAC with nothing loaded was north of 106db SINAD (that's limited by my rig,feel free to add 5-6db more) but as long as levels fall down (naturally) and filters involve...
Too bad I didn't had the chance to measure for intersample overloads and other torturing measurements but I had to let it go.

 

[Kachda]

SINAD in the 80's,THD+N vs level and Freq were all around the place (in it's working freq,limited by the filters with sanity),crosstalk way higher that unloaded (that's logical).
It's not entirely it's fault,as a DAC with nothing loaded was north of 106db SINAD (that's limited by my rig,feel free to add 5-6db more) but as long as levels fall down (naturally) and filters involve...
Too bad I didn't had the chance to measure for intersample overloads and other torturing measurements but I had to let it go.

Can you post the measurements?

 

[pjn]

Best -
Infinity Qa bought in 1970 and still going strong as long as I don't push them
Kef 104/2 s with new tweeters from MidWest and now generally renovated (new caps etc) bought in 1991
Qobuz - discovered so much new music
GIK Acoustic acoustic art panels - not sure whether they do much acoustically in my specific case in my room, but they look great and are a fabulous way to display pictures. Their bass traps are definitely quite helpful acoustically

Worst -
Dragonfly Cobalt. Not bad as such, just really bad value for money, bought and paid for the hype before I discovered ASR

 

[Rednaxela]

btw. you can't effectively eq Avi because of their directivity issues.

Careful not to get too dogmatic. I meant effectively as in to your satisfaction.

 

[Liya]

Careful not to get too dogmatic. I meant effectively as in to your satisfaction.

I've tried. Avi's were the only speakers where I bough UMiK and measured like crazy. Why? Cause I never really liked their sound and was looking for a cure. These are not speakers responding well to eq. Apart from seriously hyped mids there was something with the bass that I couldnt eq no matter what. Give them a little more bass and they were boomy pretty quick. I stopped listening to the music I like and was looking for music that Avi reproduce well. Couldnt set them to my satisfaction so I quit eq and UMiK business and ended up listening them less and less and moved to 100% headphones.
I bought big time into Ashley BS. All 3 pairs of Avi were my worst audio nightmare.

 

[fpitas]

Considering they'll outlast me by far, my TAD TD-2002 drivers are the star of the show at my house. Not cheap, but they'll amortize out. And they've increased in value with time, unlike most audio stuff

 

[Sokel]

Can you post the measurements?

I would if I had them.If you have it on hand is easy to measure it yourself,even as a loopback.

 

[Timcognito]

Best was Loxjie A30 for my son. So much great sound and connectivity for so little.

Worst is replacing my Dad's classic '79 Yamaha CR-240 receiver with the gutless Emovtiva BasX A1 amp in my garage shop. The 20 w/ch Yamaha kicks butt on the so called 50 w/ch BasX, and looks better too. What was I thinking?