Value equipment you came to appreciate down the road

steveinaz

I have to say, after owning many speakers costing far more---when I look back on it, my Energy Connoisseur C-9 towers ($1200/pr) were probably one of my favorites.

You have any equipment in your past that you realized later, you really liked it?

erniejade

Jolida cd player and my old sunfire sig II 625X2 should have kept both

Clipdat

Lumin U1 Mini for the sound quality.

Emlyn

A Parasound Halo C2 processor. Limited to component video switching so bye bye it went. Had great audio quality. I probably should have kept it for two channel use in a secondary system but I think I sold it on Ebay for a good price and moved on to a Marantz processor that handled HDMI but didn't have the same audio goodness.

treitz3

A little Radii 8 watt tube amp. I still have it somewhere.....just need to find it again. The magic smoke came out of her probably a decade ago but she is all point to point wiring. Should be an easy enough fix. I do miss the sweet sound she used to make though. Very musical, quiet and pure on efficient speakers.

I guess this doesn't really qualify though because - 1) I still have it and - 2) I realized it when I had it.

But is does qualify for a down the road thing....I still do appreciate what it could do. Most definitely the best 8 measly watts I ever heard.

I guess another one that is in the same condition/situation as the Radii would be my Dodd MLP tubed pre. That one, I am definitely getting repaired. I was gonna do that within a month....then COVID hit and screwed up all the plans. I need to put that back on my plate. Thanks for the reminder.

@erniejade - I still have my Jolida CDP. That ain't going anywhere. It ain't the best out there but man, it had definite staying power in my rig. I must have had 35-40 CDP's before that one hit.....and it stayed in the rig for over a decade and a half, only to be replaced by a Marantz Reference Series SA-7S1.

All of them - great bang for the buck - I.E. great value items.

Tom

jbreezy5

Jolida Tubedac III; liked it so much bought it in black and silver.

pitdogg2

Yamaha AX900u

My second integrated amp. The first one was the AX500u liked it so much I went up the line. The 900u had major balls, rated at 135wpc it played well above its rated power. Unfortunately someone else liked it more than I as they broke into my house to steal it 😔

steveinaz

I was a huge Yamaha fan in the mid 80's. Exceptional build quality, and smooth sound quality.

VR3

No questions, Roger's loudspeakers.. Found them for around a hundred or so... Phenomenal sound, have them to a friend and they still use them to this day.

For singer song writer stuff, they knock out it off the park

engie490

Audible Illusions L-1....amazing sound for the $$$, if only it had a remote!

mhardy6647

steveinaz wrote: »

I was a huge Yamaha fan in the mid 80's. Exceptional build quality, and smooth sound quality.

As was I, albeit a little earlier...


Heck fire, I am listening to VT Public Radio on an HD tuner via this monstrosity even as I type this...
DSC_7020 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

(ahem. The one on the bottom, that is )

treitz3

VR3 wrote: »

No questions, Roger's loudspeakers.. Found them for around a hundred or so... Phenomenal sound, gave them to a friend and they still use them to this day.

For singer song writer stuff, they knock out it off the park

That reminds me of the two way DCM time windows bookie, Trey. It only had a resistor, a cap and I believe an inductor (very simple) crossover. One of the best imaging speakers I have heard to date. Pair that with a good servo sub and you had a great system that could do pretty much handle whatever you threw at it rather well. Very fun speaker!

I don't recall ever hearing the Roger's you are talking about.

Tom

VR3

I bet you heard them... It was the pair I refinished and changed the grill cloth. They stood toe to toe with the super towers in singer song writer music.

Duly noted on the time windows, will add that to my bargain bin list to pick up hehehhe

audioluvr

1969 Plymouth Roadrunner with a Clarion 8 track. I'd kill for that again.

xsmi

My Yaqin ML-30 integrated tube amp. 40 wpc, but, what a joy to listen to.

ALL212

Mike Reeter

A Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum Integrated. Not my first taste of a good tube amp, but dang that thing could sing. One 12AU7 in the Preamp Stage, easy on the checkbook when rolling tubes.

A great value new, even better when purchased used. If I ever put together a second system for some reason, a Cronus will take the lead.

TroyD

Dynaco A-25’a

Arguably the best value ever in loudspeakers.

mhardy6647

TroyD wrote: »

Dynaco A-25’a

Arguably the best value ever in loudspeakers.

Ca. 1980 I went shopping for a small, inexpensive, attractive, good sounding, and fairly sensitive pair of loudspeakers for my parents. I ended up finding, and buying, a gorgeous (as new) used pair of A25s at Gramophone, Ltd. on Falls Road just north of Baltimore. They met all of my criteria at the time. Seventy-five bucks, used, for the pair. My parents used them for decades (most of the rest of their lives, in fact). When my father downsized in the early 2000s, I did snag them & still have them. They're far from pristine at this point cosmetically (which I really should do something about some day...) but they do still sound very nice.

The nice thing about A25s is they don't pretend to be anything they aren't or to be able to do anything they can't. They're not the last word in anything, but they are musical and easy to listen to, with no artifactual emphasis anywhere in the spectrum. Modern perspectives find them rolled off, and I suppose they are, but not to the point of distraction.



https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-High-Fidelity/60s/High-Fidelity-1969-07.pdf page 70


The Polk Audio Monitor Series Model 7 family (especially the earlier morphs) might give 'em a run for best value ever, though, I'd opine

mhardy6647

oh, one other find vis-a-vis the A25, courtesy of https://worldradiohistory.com/index.htm (and my own obsessive/compulsiveness ).


https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-High-Fidelity/60s/High-Fidelity-1969-12.pdf

TroyD

I definitely think the comparison between the Monitor 7's is a very valid one to be sure...especially the early ones with the Peerless tweeter.

I don't know how many A-25's were sold, but I'd hazard a guess it was metric schit tons of them. I've had, oh, 7-8 pairs of them through the years and I don't think I paid more than 25 bucks for any of them. I like them more than any of the KLH's I've heard.....and prefer them to most of the AR's except the AR-3/5's

I wouldn't be embarrassed to build a good 2ch rig around a pair, for sure.

maxward

My first speakers were the A35s, so I splurged. Good value for both models. Thanks for the information, @mhardy6647 .

jdjohn

I found a pair of A-25 in my dad's stuff. They weren't labeled, but sounded good to me, and then I finally figured out what they were. The butyl surrounds have obviously helped them survive the test of time. I offered to sell them to a guy for $150, but he wasn't familiar with them, so passed. I'm kind of glad he did

Oh look...here they were before unstacking

mhardy6647

TroyD wrote: »

I definitely think the comparison between the Monitor 7's is a very valid one to be sure...especially the early ones with the Peerless tweeter.

I don't know how many A-25's were sold, but I'd hazard a guess it was metric schit tons of them. I've had, oh, 7-8 pairs of them through the years and I don't think I paid more than 25 bucks for any of them. I like them more than any of the KLH's I've heard.....and prefer them to most of the AR's except the AR-3/5's

I wouldn't be embarrassed to build a good 2ch rig around a pair, for sure.

A very astute post (IMO, of course and FWIW).

maxward wrote: »

My first speakers were the A35s, so I splurged. Good value for both models. Thanks for the information, @mhardy6647 .

Pair of those* here, too

DSC_9644 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr


______
* At least I think they're A35s. Dump finds, of course.

TroyD

I've never heard the A-35's or the even more elusive A-50's (I think that was the model #).......but they do intrigue me.....

maxward

@mhardy6647 That looks like an A35, but the original grille didn’t attach with Velcro. I wish that it did. Another good value component from my original system is my Thorens TD 160. Paid $144 in 1973, which, even when adjusted for inflation, would compete with some of the $500-1000 turntables available now (at least I think it would). I’d like to hear it compared to something else in that range.

TroyD

Agreed....El Grande turned me on to Thorens turntables.......based on the AR suspension, but with FAR better build quality and a decent tonearm. Pretty much the only vintage tables that interest me....other than perhaps an AR ES

I've had 2 AR XA turntables.....sure, you could wail on the plinth with a hammer and it wouldn't miss a beat but, man, the tonearm was TRULY awful.