Best bang-for-the-buck components

madmax

I am answering the original question of best bang for the buck but it may not sound like it. The absolute best bang for the buck I have ever encountered is the most expensive piece of audio equipment I have ever purchased...my avantgarde speakers. They can be operated with the lowest power amplifiers and easily sound better than any of my other speakers have. For example, a little 10w t-amp fed with a cheap CD player sounds far better than any of my other speakers with top notch mega-dollar front ends, cables, power conditioning etc. What I am saying is the speaker is what makes it what it is. If you want best bang for the buck (for the whole system) start with some really good high efficiency speakers and you will be rewarded greatly.

Another speaker which I am interested in for another room are these from ZU. They are actually affordable, audiophile quality and efficient. I've been watching ZU for years and they are finally offering what I have been hoping for, the Essence. There is a writeup about it in last months stereophile magazine too. Given all that, I haven't heard them yet...

http://www.zuaudio.com/loudspeakers.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=73&category_id=1
madmax

sTiLlLeArNiNg

Dual Turntable's, Shure/Ortofon cartridge's, Canare/Belden bulk wire, Vampire terminal's, Hubbel outlet's, Polk Audio speaker's and Emotiva product's

EDIT: ANY Vintage equipment

markmarc

I've had a bunch of quality gear come thru my house in the past four years. I'll be honest, very little of it wasn't worthy of being happily a part of somebody's home system.

That being said, the most impressive (and best value) pieces I've experienced off the the top of my head are:
ACI Emerald XL's monitors
Totem Mites monitors
Jolida JD 100 cdp
Aperion Audio 4T minitower
Wadia i170 digital dock
Vista Audio i34 int. tube amp
iPod 160gig
Audioengine AW2 wireless broadcaster

......and not because of price, but because they offer amazing sound
SimAudio i7 int. amp
Eficion F200 monitors

markmarc

madmax wrote: »

I am answering the original question of best bang for the buck but it may not sound like it. The absolute best bang for the buck I have ever encountered is the most expensive piece of audio equipment I have ever purchased...my avantgarde speakers. They can be operated with the lowest power amplifiers and easily sound better than any of my other speakers have. For example, a little 10w t-amp fed with a cheap CD player sounds far better than any of my other speakers with top notch mega-dollar front ends, cables, power conditioning etc. What I am saying is the speaker is what makes it what it is. If you want best bang for the buck (for the whole system) start with some really good high efficiency speakers and you will be rewarded greatly.

Another speaker which I am interested in for another room are these from ZU. They are actually affordable, audiophile quality and efficient. I've been watching ZU for years and they are finally offering what I have been hoping for, the Essence. There is a writeup about it in last months stereophile magazine too. Given all that, I haven't heard them yet...

http://www.zuaudio.com/loudspeakers.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=73&category_id=1
madmax

Max:
The Zu's are really good for the price. I'm going to hear them this weekend hooked up to the Mini-Watt Tube amp at the home of TONEAudio. I know that Jeff thinks the combo is killer.

BlueFox

markmarc wrote: »

I've had a bunch of quality gear come thru my house in the past four years. I'll be honest, very little of it wasn't worthy of being happily a part of somebody's home system.

That being said, the most impressive (and best value) pieces I've experienced off the the top of my head are:
ACI Emerald XL's monitors
Totem Mites monitors
Jolida JD 100 cdp
Aperion Audio 4T minitower
Wadia i170 digital dock
Vista Audio i34 int. tube amp
iPod 160gig
Audioengine AW2 wireless broadcaster

Yes on the Wadia/iPod combination. At $379 for the Wadia, and $250 for the iPod one has a great music server, assuming you already have a decent DAC, and store the files in either lossless, or use Apple Lossless compression.

I love my Wadia/iPod. That combo has really gotten me interested in music once again, and I find myself spending $100 of dollars a month buying CDs to feed the iPod. I only have the 120GB iPod Classic, and with only have classical on it there are 1800 songs, and still 60GB of free space. Being classical many of these songs are 20-30 minutes long.

On the other hand, I did upgrade both the stock digital IC, and the external power supply for the Wadia for even better sonic results, so its total price is not as inexpensive as at first. But even in stock form, it still sounds pretty good, and as I said, makes a great music server.

lakesailor

Some “value” gear I can recommend…..

Adcom GFA 545/555 Amps
Nakamichi 7 series gear
APT Holman amp/pre-amp
Sansui AU series integrated amps/TU series tuners
Vintage Polk SDA Speakers
Vintage JBL “L” Series speakers
Pioneer “stable platter” CD players
Vintage Thorens turntables
Aragon amps/pre-amps
Kimber Cable “PR” series speaker wire
Adcom DAC’s (they made 2 of them)
Rega Planet CD Players
Goldring PA 160 Phono pre-amp
Bellari VP 129 tube phono pre-amp
Vintage Systemdeck turntables
Ortofon “Red” cartridge
PSB Alpha speakers
SVS Subs

285exp

http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical-Wire-Cable-Wire/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbmcjZ1xr5/R-100535110/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

concealer404

285exp wrote: »

http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical-Wire-Cable-Wire/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbmcjZ1xr5/R-100535110/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Sigh.

Surprise.

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/search.php?searchid=13751601

kevhed72

Cpyder wrote: »

Across many, many internet sources, I've read almost universal acclaim on Emotiva amps (Specifically XPA-2). I had no clue apparently many people have vendettas against the company here, on CP. As evidenced by this post:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2620/4050550809_b2b7e470f6_o.png

and others..

If you feel my honest word is here to cause trouble, I'm not sure this forum is continuing to be productive anymore. Someone should not be ridiculed for his ideas, and it happens here way to much in my opinion. A productive forum should embrace opposing views, not attack them. I'm sure the founders of CP also shared this vision when they sat down to create this place.

Are you a re-incarnation of Slowpoky...didn't he live in Iowa also?

concealer404

kevhed72 wrote: »

Are you a re-incarnation of Slowpoky...didn't he live in Iowa also?

Nah, he's not Slowpolky.

ESavinon

Hafler products.

Malaka

Being that I have OTHER expensive hobbies in addition to high-end audio/video (like Ham Radio, motorcycles, cars, travel, etc.), I have been a longtime seeker of great value components!

Let me start by saying vintage stereo receivers (i.e. Pioneer, Marantz, etc.) from the 70's, can be an excellent value. They were built like tanks, with very good sonics and quality. If you find these in good condition, you can often get some incredible deals. I found a mint condition SX-780 on Ebay for only $90, and it has served me very well for years, and sounds quite 'musical'. It can also drive my 4 ohm MMG's with aplomb!

The Parasound P/HP-850 is a great preamp for the money. I actually have one in mint condition for sale, because I recently bought a 'Little Dot' MKIII tubed head amp/preamp to replace it. The Little Dot is a 'giant killer' great value component as well. And the stock tubes sound fantastic! JBL used to make an inexpensive horn loaded speaker line called the HLS series, which garnered rave reviews. And AV123 makes some great speakers for chump change. The Onix X-LS is a great value, and sounds like speakers that cost several times it. The floorstanding version is great too. If you're looking for a great sounding CDP, Marantz makes the CD-5001, whose Cirrus Logic chip sounds fantastic. Lastly, let's not forget the Magnepan MMG speakers. You cannot get more revealing, timbrally accurate speakers for six hundred bucks.

I'm sure I missed some.

TroyD

You know, I've never even seen an Emotiva amp...I don't have anything against them, but thier little fanclub here is past annoying. What a bunch crybabys. If an Emo jerk-fest is the order of the day...so be it.

That said...there are few giant killers out there today. I think the Jolida cd player hits above its class. I think that the the Maggie 1.6's and MMG's stomp about anything in it's price range. Anthem amps...lot of great sound for what they cost.....

Lots of great gear out there....but giant killers? Eh...I dunno.

BDT

W WALDECKER

I have had a Vista Audio i34 tube integrated in my two channel rig for about a week.this little tube amp is not only good for the money the i34 is very good period. the Engineer who designed this thing uses custom made Trafomatic transformers which are very good iron and it is very quiet at idle. this little gem would be great for a novice to tubes but is good enough to please the more seasoned tube enthusiast.thanks....WCW III

Systems

Anything from Monarchy Audio. Poon has never disappointed me with anything he makes. Great customer service to go along with his products. If you ever get to the San Francisco are look him up. I bet you get an invite to his place for a nice listening session and demo of his products.

TroyD

187CAM wrote: »

Poon has never disappointed me .

Wow....you must have limited experience. Give it some time

BDT

Cogito

Cpyder wrote: »

Again, lower down on the price list, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone say a single bad thing about Emotiva amps.

I have heard some grumbling about quality control with Emotiva products. They seem to offer a huge "bang for the buck".

apphd

Cogito wrote: »

I have heard some grumbling about quality control with Emotiva products. They seem to offer a huge "bang for the buck".

Grumbling, is what it is. Unfortunately with Emotiva as with everyone else we have no idea what the failure rate is. We hear more (usually, as they are the more vocal) from the unhappy customer. Take a look at all the Onk, Marantz etc. factory refurb units out there. Or look in the "Troubleshooting" forum here. I don't know of any manufactures of anything that has a 0% fallout rate. Sometimes it's nothing more than the purchaser not knowing how to use something, sometimes their expectations were unrealistic and they blame the quality. Watch for reoccurring patterns of the same problem over and over again, poor response from the manufacture to address what issues do come up, that, while not a true measure of QC problems gives us a glimpse of what we want to know. All we can do is try and figure out if our guess of someone's failure rate is within our personal comfort level of risk.

But sometimes bang for the buck carries a little more risk, used, lower cost new, refurb. etc.

concealer404

^Bingo. Good news is not news.

MLZ

Canare Star Quad 4s11 Speaker Cable http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/speaker/index.htm and if you need it to be pretty cover with Techflex and Heat Shrink http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=776636

heiney9

Cogito wrote: »

I have heard some grumbling about quality control with Emotiva products. They seem to offer a huge "bang for the buck".

Depends on how you define "bang for the buck".

H9

bikerboy

DIY is the way I have found as the bftb. I think the Twisted Pear Audio guys make some of the best value stuff out there. Great customer service and great sounding kits. Their Buffalo 24 is great and the Buffalo 32 is even better. Hagerman kits are also one of the best bftb out there. Dedicated AC lines to the system made a big difference also.

george daniel

outstanding little phon stage for the buck--evens works with a lo output mc,, a friend bought one,tried it in my system--impressive,especially when you consider price

http://www.zzounds.com/item--ARTUSBPHONOPLUSV2

rayslifecycle

Best Bang for the Buck components:
1970s Yamaha belt drive TT - 40 bucks used
Denon DL160 Phono Cart - $150 - outstanding!
The Rotel Phono Preamp: 20bucks used.
Akai Cassette deck: $10 used

Best Bang for the Buck Speakers:
Polk SDA-CRS+ speakers: 100 bucks used.
Polk Monitor 10a Speakers: 100 bucks used.
Polk Monitor 7b speakers: 110 bucks used with stands

Great Thread - enjoyed reading all 4 pages - even the emo BS

RuSsMaN

Silvertone.

George Grand

The Dynaco Quadaptor.