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The best sounding piece of kit you've ever owned (or enjoyed the most)

Darren L

Egalitarian
As we have the worst we may as well have the best ( of course this is subjective opinion, system and room dependant)
Here's mine , In no particular order or pricing or level of performance, though perhaps the title should be enjoyed the most

Naim Nait.
NA Hyperspace.
Hadcock 242se
Shure V15mxr ( outstanding!)
Sugden A21a
Creek 4040
Rega Rp3
SF Concertos
Celestion Model 9
 
Ion Obelisk 3x Xpak1 - honestly should never have changed to Naim.

Sony Walkman, can’t recall the model but it sounded better than the Walkman Pro.

Shahinian Obelisks - sold to keep wife happy

My LP12, still going strong 33 years later.
 
Sony Walkman DD3 with Sennheiser HD 440 headphones, a long bus journey and some gorgeous New Zealand scenery

Twas shortlived though - left the headphones plugged in too many times whilst it was in my bag and it snapped the circuit board
 
Living Voice Argento 300B SE Amp
Audio Note AN-E SEC Signature Speakers
Audio Note M8 Phono Preamp
Border Patrol CU2 Control Preamp
Voyd 3 Motor jobby/Mission Mechanic Tonearm/Clearaudio DaVinci MK2 mc cartridge
Audio Note S9 SUT (big heavy jobby)
Audio Note SOOTTO Interconnect cables (of course they really do not make a sound-dead quiet)
Yamamura Millenium 6000 Interconnect cables (of course they really do not make a sound-dead quiet)

Lots more but wife will kill me if she sees the long list :)
 
Ok, I'm editing this becuase Mr Pig said it was boring to just list things you like. He isn't always right, but on this occasion he is. So I'm adding details:

Audionote Dac1
Peter Q wrote a little essay when he produced his first DACs. One of the things he said was that all CD players (of the time) make CD's sound as though they were all recorded in the same studio - this struck a chord with me. I thought he was absolutely right. So I bought this DAC brand new. I was physically very large...... but I loved it. It had fantastic tonal colour, it was detailed but it was also so damn inviting to listen to. CD followed CD with no dissatisfaction. PS when it was hot it also had a nice smell that I liked. I upgraded to a more expensive solid state DAC and all the magic evaporated. Duh!
Amphion Xenon
Large three way speakers with side firing woofers and an all metal drive unit array. These turned me on to having a full (virtually) bandwidth sound at home. They did great 3d stereo, they had extended treble, they went loud effortlessly..... they were the absolute opposite of the little shitty British stand mounts I had always used. The dedicated midrange driver was ace. They opened my eyes.

Conrad Johnson Pre and power amps
Gosh,,,, I loved these guys. They were champagne finished, they appeared to extend the bass response of my speakers. I enjoyed the look, the sound, the feel.They were sweet but not rolled off, effortless but not strident, dynamic but not in your face.

Krell KSA80
These are everything you always read about the Krell sound, limitlessly powerful (it felt like it anyway), dynamic with fab bass and extended treble. Lovely class A sound. Gosh it looked a mess in my lounge.... even I could see that.

Magneplanar SMGb.
The first pair of Maggies I owned and my first pair of dipoles. I could not believe the way these filled my room in a way no box loudspeaker had done and their sound..... I could hear quite quickly that a layer of something I didnt need had gone.... The box was no longer singing along with the music. Extra weird looking, extra special. Not very efficient but boy did they sing.



'Upgraded' all of these things only to miss them endlessly.......
 
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Funk FX-RII is the only thing I’ve had that represented not just a large but an unqualified improvement on what I had before.
 
ESL.

So lacking annoying vices that it is extremely enjoyable. Also needs decent amplification and source components though!

Best wishes from George
 
Probably not "best ever" but I was so shocked to see some of the best gear I've had in the past named as "worst ever" in the other thread I'll give a "big up" to:

Celestion Ditton 15XR's as a great budget speaker.

Mission 770. One of the best speaker's I've ever had and so much so I used them as my main speakers for maybe 15 years or so.

Mission 770 Freedom. Very different to original 770's but equally good overall.

Just goes to show how different tastes can be I guess....
 
I own more expensive gear but the best bits I’ve enjoyed and have been fab value for money have been

AR18 speakers
Rotel RT 850AL tuner
Rotel RCD 975BX CD player (I think that was the model - it had a CDM9 transport and I bought it secondhand

Early ATC SCM 10 speakers were great too.

I’ve never managed to get emotionally attached to an amplifier and I’ve owned ATC, Arcam, Rega, Linn, Exposure, Creek
 
PT1
Mission 774 original
Denon DL-304
JLH phono
Harman TU9400
Nakamichi 600
Ion Obelisk 3
Stax 202/SRM-1 Mk2
 
Regas, a Nima, an Audionote Arm 1 Version 2. The Nima and the Audionote had very different strengths, which the FX-R sort of combines, but really it's just better in every way. No niggles at all.
Interesting, I've had all of those...... The FX-R has always put me off by looking a bit home made and also Arthur knows what to charge... but if it sounds great......
 
Interesting, I've had all of those...... The FX-R has always put me off by looking a bit home made and also Arthur knows what to charge... but if it sounds great......

Yes, a bit spendy new, given the looks. I should say I haven't heard any other arms in this price range so it might all be par for the course.
 
One of the first Mission Cyrus One amps, Heybrook HB1 speakers, 1st gen Wharfedale diamonds, CCA, Sonos One.
 
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Regas, a Nima, an Audionote Arm 1 Version 2. The Nima and the Audionote had very different strengths, which the FX-R sort of combines, but really it's just better in every way. No niggles at all.
I find it very difficult to make comparative judgements about arms etc because you’re listening to four different things- cart/arm/TT/phono stage in the vinyl replay chain. Linn dealers were equipped to do it because the good ones would have several LP12s ready with different carts (Linn ones admittedly) to directly compare. It’s 30 years since I had a dealer happy to put three different carts on my TT in the shop to try. Can you imagine someone doing that theses days?
 


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