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

dfuller

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Apr 26, 2020
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Oh boy...

Best: Sennheiser HD6XX ($220). No explanation needed, they're great headphones for the money.
Focal Alpha 65s ($800/pr). The first "real" monitors I owned, and... honestly, I legit liked these more than the Focal Shape 65s I owned later. I'm very hopeful about the new versions even though I don't need them.

Worst: Adam S3A ($2500/pr used, I guess around $5000/pr new when in production). I cannot begin to overstate how much these things sucked. Every single bit of work I did on these ended up sounding weird on other systems. I wonder if these had the same midrange suckout problem that the Focal Twin6s do? They certainly didn't translate well to other systems in that region especially. The port design was also crap, and I could literally hear them go "ghghhghghhg" with any appreciable low end. They did get loud as balls, though, and were inoffensive as casual listening speakers.
 

WoodyLuvr

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Joined
Nov 20, 2018
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Location
Siam
BEST
  • Meizu HiFi PRO DAC HeadAMP
  • Ksearphone Bell-Ti "Titanium Ling" (120Ω)
  • Quad ESL-63
  • Nakamichi Cassette Deck 1

WORST
  • Audeze LCD-2.1
  • XDuoo XD-05 Plus Black Edition + 05BL Pro BT
  • Grado SR80 (32Ω)
  • AQ DragonFly Black
 
OP
LightninBoy

LightninBoy

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Jan 9, 2019
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Location
St. Paul, MN
Best:
Node 2i
JTR Caps 2400ulf’s
ML Electrostatics
Buckeye 502 amps
Qudelix 5k
Umic-1
Audyssey Multi EQ AVR and Audyssey App


Worst:
Bose Acoustimas
Umic-1
Onkyo AVR w/HDMI failures
Klipsch Subs
Bose 501’s

Whats the story with the umic?
 

AdamG

Proving your point makes it “Science”.
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Whats the story with the umic?
Oh nothing wrong with the umic, it was how steep the learning curve and how bad the room was. Ignorance is Bliss kind of thing. The Damned Umic was the start of most of my upgrade journey. A Blessing and Curse.
 

Rick Sykora

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Jan 14, 2020
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Stow, Ohio USA
Worst...

Pre-digital, high-end Denon AVR that sounded great until it developed a channel imbalance while still under warranty. Authorized repair center claimed it was fixed twice and never righted it. My Hypex NC502MP amp that was ordered with instructions to only ship revision with power down improvement, but shipped anyway. Is fine now but way more pain and expense than it should have been to remediate.

Best...

My CBT24 speakers bought for Christmas 2019 and the Echo Link I bought this past one. Best sound and access to music that I have ever had. My desktop stereo pair of Echoes that do the job when I need to work while I listen. :)
 

Madhuski

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May 28, 2020
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not audio, but for me it was the Darbee, At first I thought it was great, and then wuickly went to "meh - what a waste of $200"
 

Leporello

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Oct 27, 2019
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Best: Sennheiser HD 600. Paid 259€ for a brand new pair. There are better headphones out there, but for the price these are quite nice.

Worst: Benchmark DAC1. There is nothing wrong with it, really. It's just that the sonic difference compared to an ordinary cd player converter is so vanishingly small (to my ears).
 

simbloke

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May 30, 2019
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Location
North Wales, UK
Best:

Creek CAS4040 - My first amp, bought in the 80s for £120. It's been dragged around to countless places Iived as a student, and various other places before I finally bought a house. It spent time in my office, years under my desk, and years in my wife's business. Now it has a new home in my shed.

Goodmans Maxim II speakers - My first speakers, just as old and had the same journey as my amp and still going strong.

Squeezebox 3 - So many years ahead of its time and totally unappreciated by Logitech, no surprise there then.

Worst:

Kimber Cable - Yeah could have been worse, I could have spent 10 times the money. I also should have know better.

PXL_20210509_145441257.jpg
 

Angsty

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Best for the money:
  • Schiit Modi 3 DAC - massively better than the internal DAC in my Azur 540C CD player and virtually indistinguishable from my main Bryston DAC when playing CDs.
  • NAD C272 amp - I purchased it for a second system and was startled that it performed as well or better than my Bryston 4B-ST when using a high quality pre-amp. My old NAD pre-amp had been holding it back for years before I discovered this.
Worst for the money:
  • Audioquest Type 6 speaker cables - cost a lot more than the zip cord that replaced them and I’d almost swear that they made my speakers sound worse.
 

syn08

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Aug 9, 2019
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Location
Toronto, Canada
Best: 7-8 years ago, Anthem AVM20 Preamp for $150 used, still using it today (for audio). Has a Wolfson DAC chip that is not far of being competitive (performance wise) even today.

Worst: 6-7 years ago, Sonos S1 Connect, overpriced crap then and today; the S2 generation is not much better.

Would like to replace these Sonos Connect devices, but cannot find anything decently priced with equivalent functionality. Bluesound Note 2i looks better on paper, has a decent app, but is outrageos priced as well. So I keep using these Sonos pieces of crap :(
 

Slayer

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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.
 

rwortman

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Best: Crown XLS1502 amplifier purchased new for $300.

Worst: Music Hall MMF-1 turntable. The so called platter bearing was like a part for a cheap toy. Tonka truck quality. It cost $300 20+ years ago and was maybe worth $95. Rumbled like a truck idling outside. Sold in on Ebay to someone else who believed the lies that the magazine experts told about it.
 

mash

Active Member
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Oct 8, 2020
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Best Value:
RPi4 / Topping D10S (although my new allo boss2 is giving the pair a run for their money)

Worst Value:
MIT speaker cables (can't remember what I payed but whatever it was it was a waste of money)

Just plain Worst:
Bose 301s (I traded some Fortura 10s for these....dumbest audio decision ever)

Current Favorites:
Revel M105s. Topping D90

Old Favorite:
Pioneer SX 737 receiver (first real piece of gear, bought in 1975 with paper route money and still in operation)
 

Angsty

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Round two…

Best for the money: VPI Traveler turntable, version “1.5”. I scored one used for less than half of retail with an Ortofon 2M Blue included. It has the AC motor and the improved sapphire gimbal bearings instead of the DC motor and stainless steel bearings of the later “version 2”. Harry Weisfeld criticized feedback-looped DC motors in a magazine interview only to adopt them in a later model of the turntable. I like my version so much that it’s likely to be my last turntable.

Worst for the money: Audio Technica stylus cleaner. It works, but 16 bucks for two teaspoons of alcohol with a tiny brush is a bad deal. And, Ortofon does not recommend using it with their styli (see above). Worst yet, plain distilled water on my stylus dust brush works equally well.

Did I mention that vinyl is a money trap?
 
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