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Best NEW value for money hifi /audio piece of kit you have purchased

The NAD C316BEE is a real cracker, only 40w per channel but sounds much bigger. Are you able to compare to the IO?
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Yes, I had the chance to compare both amps. (only for a few, brief moments though) I think I could easily live with the NAD C316BEE V2 for a long period but to me the IO is in another leaque. My first thoughts after comparing the two was that the NAD's sound was a bit more rough, and more forward/bright. The IO sounded a bit more natural, refined, spacious and more involving to me, but somehow voices sounded a bit too far away in the soundstage, compared with the NAD. (I hope I explained this right, as English it not my native language)

I did swap the supplied powercable for an Audioquest NRG-X3 though, which was a no-brainer. It brought back the voices more to the front of the soundstage, and transparency also improved a bit. (I did the same with a Brio-r I had in the past (around 2012/2013) I also liked the Brio-r back then but found it a little too smooth/polite for my liking, lacking a bit of sparkle. Despite my fear the IO's treble would sound similar, there's no lack of top-end sparkle/clarity.

(what I liked about the NAD btw was the fact that it could be switched to stand-by mode, in which it consumed next to nothing on electricity, 0,5watt. (an attractive feature in these expensive times!)
 
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Rega Io amp. Put a small streaming system together for my wife (And me ;) ) and the Io does a cracking job.
 
Rega Io amp. Put a small streaming system together for my wife (And me ;) ) and the IO does a cracking job.
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May I ask what you're using as a streaming source ? I recently had the chance to try a Bluesound Node N130 and expected it to be a nice upgrade from my trusty old Sonos Connect.
(according to the many raving reviews, and comparisons with a Sonos Connect/Port, it should, but... to me, unfortunately it wasn't)
I really liked the fact though that I could simply pop in a USB-drive (128GB as small as my thumbnail) and play my favorite albums, without the need to have my desktop PC on all the time, to provide the music.
 
Amazon smart speaker for internet radio. £20.
A Chinese preamp, 3 inputs plus Bluetooth, with remote. £40 ish.
A power filtering box. Cleans up the mains, no more grunge from fridges, heating pumps, etc.
 
Original Dynavector P-75, which made a Supercapped Prefix sound ordinary when used with a Lyra Clavis DC in Dr. T mode.
 
The £10 Lindy Cromo USB cable that connects my old iPad directly to the DAC.

Quite what I was doing with separate streamers for the last 10 years is beyond me.
 
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Not mentioned yet, but my value for money would be the Amazon firestick 4k, some of the HD music on YouTube streamed to my active speakers and TV are quite amazing.
 
There’s not much that I still own that I bought brand new, I’ve never really being fussed about having brand new kit, but I bought a Rega P3 in 2001, it wasn’t much more for a new one than people were asking for a used one, so new it was… it was an astonishing piece of kit, just kept me listening like nothing I’d owned before. They still are a solid performer and still astonishing value… those Original RB300 equipped 3s were so well finished and solid feeling too, just a perfect product at its very sensible price point. I sold it because I’d built a second LP mostly from parts leftover after upgrading my main deck… I felt sick as the guy pulled away from my drive with it, two LP12 was an unnecessary extravagance and I’d been totally happy with the Rega in my second system… so I sold the second LP12 to my mate and bought another Rega p3 from someone here… I sold that to another mate when I bought a Rega P5. The P5 was so good that I wasn’t too gutted when I sold my Klimax spec LP12 to raise cash and re-deployed it as my main deck. I sold the P5 when I went back to another well specced LP12, and I really miss that too. There’s something very right about Rega decks.

Another favourite is the Linn Ikemi, I was blown away when I compared one to my Karik in 2002, it took some saving, they weren’t cheap, but I had to have one. It’s still one of my favourite players at any price and I bought another one in 2020, in 2022, it’s still my primary CD player, 20 years after I bought my first, I’ve still not found anything better for the money.
 
linnfomaniac83 said:
There’s not much that I still own that I bought brand new, I’ve never really being fussed about having brand new kit, but I bought a Rega P3 in 2001, it wasn’t much more for a new one than people were asking for a used one, so new it was… it was an astonishing piece of kit, just kept me listening like nothing I’d owned before. They still are a solid performer and still astonishing value… those Original RB300 equipped 3s were so well finished and solid feeling too, just a perfect product at its very sensible price point. I sold it because I’d built a second LP mostly from parts leftover after upgrading my main deck… I felt sick as the guy pulled away from my drive with it, two LP12 was an unnecessary extravagance and I’d been totally happy with the Rega in my second system… so I sold the second LP12 to my mate and bought another Rega p3 from someone here… I sold that to another mate when I bought a Rega P5. The P5 was so good that I wasn’t too gutted when I sold my Klimax spec LP12 to raise cash and re-deployed it as my main deck. I sold the P5 when I went back to another well specced LP12, and I really miss that too. There’s something very right about Rega decks.

Another favourite is the Linn Ikemi, I was blown away when I compared one to my Karik in 2002, it took some saving, they weren’t cheap, but I had to have one. It’s still one of my favourite players at any price and I bought another one in 2020, in 2022, it’s still my primary CD player, 20 years after I bought my first, I’ve still not found anything better for the money.
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I still hope to hear the Ikemi someday. What is the tone of the Ikemi like?

S.
 
AT VM740ML I bought a few months ago for £200 and a little chifi box to add functionality to my DH-110 - adds BT, USB and a RCA pass-thru that gives me remote volume control (also has FM mono,SD slot and headphone out which I don't use.
 
Probably my Naim 42/110, kept them for about 2 decades and the resale mostly funded the upgrade to a secondhand 32.5 with 72 boards and a 140 which I kept for about 15 years.
 
AT VM95ML - superb for the money.

Lyngdorf 1120 - £2k for AMP/DAC/Streamer/Room Correction. A superb little amp.
 
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