best buy, worst buy, why?

I will start, best hmmm got to be the 300b valve amps

amplfier via ebay that was bust, still not fixed

 

My worst buy was my Sony radio I STE300 I paid £80 for, I hardly never use it and its worthless now.

 

don't think i've ever had an appallingly bad buy really but my brothers' Beyer DT811s are a bit 'average', some Koss Pro4/AA headphones were certinaly not as special as they should have been.

The Arcam Alpha 8p power amps were a bit undernourished and the Cyrus Pre was quite dull


Best buys? Sennheiser 580s and Stax Lambda headphones were absolutely outstanding. Entech Dac (for sale ) improved my system so much its ridiculous and Black Rhodium Concerto interconnects are the best value interconnects on the market imo.

actually, scrub all that above. Best buy was Yamaha CRWF1 with Audiomaster technology. The CDR/CDRWs is produces are quite simply awesome. You put a Audiomaster cdr versus a normal disc-at-once copy and you WILL be astounded.

Anyone who does *ahem* copies of cd's would be unwise not to invest in one.

 

I had some Senheiser HD495's these were rated 4 star by What HIFI but they sounded quite awful. The bass was really quite muffled and they were very hard to drive.

 

Best buy: has to be my Marantz cd6000Ki, ive dem'd it time after time against rivals costing up to £1200 and it wasnt outclassed at all.....only the better cd players around the £1000 mark bettered it in very few areas but the improvments did not justify the price leap!

Worse buy: hmmm nothings really truly terrible but if i must choose the worse it will have to be the Mrantz PM6010ose. It was reasonably refined and an easy going kinda amp-that was the problem!It had practically no bass(easily whipped by the el cheapo Cambridge Audio A5i), midrange and treble were abit thin especially when the volume knob was turned up. Build quality was good and it was quite reliable. looked quite nice too.

Ultra

 

Best buy... Got to be the Meadowlark Kestrels at the price I paid. Truly awesome speakers.

Worst. The parts to build the GWS interconnect. Not up to the hype. Followed by a marantz PM66SE amp (the predecessor to the PM6010 OSE that ultra speaks of). Thrashed to kingdom come by the similar RRP Rotel RA-971mkII that replaced it.

 

I like my PM600OSE I don't like too much bass as I tend to think it some how spoils the music especialy in my room as its very small, it can easily become boomy but my PM6000OSE never gets boomy.

My Marantz CD6000OSE LE which I bought a few weeks has been very good, certainly trashes my Sony CDP530 in every respect and for £150 you can't really go wrong considiering it cost me £150.

My best buy of all time though is probably my Project Debut II, it has quite literly changed my life!

 

best/bargain has to be the Sony CDP that had been modded to be an AudioSynthesis Transcend CD transport (to go with my next best/bargain, the AS Dax Decade) which I bought second hand for £200 - the guy that sold it me had himself got it from a dealer who didnt know what he had, for £275.

Oh yes, the Celestion Ditton 15 speakers that I bought full price in 1976 for £109.50 [are] still giving me delight after 28 years in the other hifi stack in the dining room - which I guess at less than £4 per annum must be very good value!!

 

Worst buy: Sony RCD-W3 twin-deck CD recorder. Limited editing features, mediocre sound.

Best buys: NAD C521BEE CD player - very very chuffed with this one! Cracking sound for the money and I'll be keeping this for a long while.

Pro-Ject Debut II TT - shows how much more an extra £20 or so gives you over the cheapy plastic decks.

 

hehe this has to be the bargain of the year



Yours for £99 at Richer Sounds.

 

best buy - NAD c350, less than a year old for 155 quid!

no complaints at all...

 

Best buy:

Mana Sound Frame, because it engendered my present anti-tweak scepticism, thereby saving me tons of money and time. It went to an appreciative home with James "The Devil", so I didn't even lose that much money on it.

Worst buy:

Mana Sound Frame, because it didn't work at all for me.

 

BEST BUYS –

I recently acquired a TagMclaren AV32, had it about 6 months and have found it truly awesome. It sounds excellent with music and it has transformed my TV/DVD viewing experience ten fold. I can honestly say I have yet to find something it ain't good at.

I also have the Tag T32 DAB – again awesome. I do listen to radio a lot and what better machine to listen to it on than the Tag. Btw, I have found that DAB does sound very good; well it does on the Tag anyway.

Worst Buys –

I bought the Musical Fidelity A3 Pre/Power and while at first I was convinced it was exactly the sound I wanted, I slowly began to find it rather bland and muffled and I was running them with a pair of MA20se. Needless to say they soon went.

 

Best buy - Nakamichi DR2 (serviced) for £100 - assuming it turns up and works (from PinkFish)

Worst buy - Epos ES14s for £150 including stands (not their fault - they're ACE on Henryt's system, but they woudln't work well with my sources/amps in the old system I had, and my current amp is too weedy for them)

IN FACT - if Mart wanted the ES14s, I'd swap for the M12s which WILL work off the back of a Naim NAIT3

 

Best buy: a Linn Classik for £325. Or probably a NAC42.5/NAP110 for £125.

Worst buy: Tag DAC20. Dull as ditchwater, s-m-o-o-t-h and lifeless. Couldn't get rid of it quickly enough.

-- Ian

 

Best Buy

Rotel RSX 1055 AV Receiver - surprisingly musical and good enough for everything 99% of the time.

Worst buy

JM Labs Mini Utopia - made all music as interesting as surfing the net looking for nasal hair removers.

 

best buy : LP12 & ittok vii £90 at secondhandland norwich

at the time, they did'nt know what they were selling and i was not sure what i was buying, hence my selling it on a few weeks later for £450
i know now that it was 'probably' hot.

worst buy : RA purifier block - poo - told them i was sending it back and they basically denied it could be expected to do the jobs it was advertised for - WTF!! - got a refund tho'

 

Best buy

Meadowlark Shearwaters & Wadia 850 for less than the price of a XPS2

Worst Buy

Nordost SPM by a country mile & shunyata Mojhavie like pouring ice cream in you cdp

 

I got a great deal on ebay, world audio kls3 speakers, 8" audax carbon, for £180, made to a nice standard, they are really good, equal to well over £1k.

Bought an amp lately and it buzzed like mad, seller did the predictable, and thought I was making trouble, but after a lot of trouble making I got some cash back... time to fix it

ebay hassle hmmmph

still waiting for an amp to be fixed, and lost £100 of books from the states in the post.

Picked up an lp12 myself, minter, early for £250, sold for double, but should've kept it, nice deck.

300bs have changed my listening, i can't listen to transistor amps any more, only the very best and there aren't many of those, I can't even listen to valves with overall feedback...they have ruined everything.

 

best buy would have to be the Ortofon MC-3 cart I got brand new off of ebay for £70
never really bought anything I didn't like........