The Best & Rarest of all Stereo Gear

The best combination of outstanding performance and rarity are so me OTL amps that were built by a Greek builder around 1980.  I know one person who has the two-box per channel version (both BIG boxes), but, I don't know what he paid for them.  Another person bought the little brother of this amp (just one big box per channel) for $50,000 for the stereo pair.  I have heard both amps and they are incredibly dynamic and immediate sounding without being harsh or brittle (tough combination).  I heard that this hobbyist/builder only made six such OTL amps.

I have also heard an ultra-rare Western Electric 59B amp equipped with the also ultra rare meshplate 252 output tube.  This is also a fantastic sounding amp that gets dynamics so right.  The dealer did a "cruel" demonstration for me where he hooked up an Audio Note Kageki amp and the 59B for comparison purposes (I own a Kageki); the Kageki sounded somewhat lifeless by comparison.

On the solid state front, I heard a system that had a Lyra Connoisseur phonostage and linestage.  The system was very dynamic and immediate sounding while still sounding very fluid and lacking in artificial edginess.   

Sao Win made a few unusual cartridges, such as, a field effect transistor cartridge.  The signal generating element of the cartridge was a transistor: the gate element being a permanently charged electret attached to the cantilever which controlled the electron flow through the rest of the transistor.  I heard this cartridge once, and the system it was in sounded very good.  I bet this is extremely rare.

I suppose much of what I currently run is rare and quite nice sounding.  My preamp is custom-made by Aldo D'Urso in Italy.  This makes it "modern," although very few of the components are actually modern.  The chassis, tube (310 and 311s), input and output transformers, all of the resistors and capacitors and the Daven attenuators for balance are all quite old and repurposed; the only thing new is the remotely controlled volume pot and the power transformer in the separate power supply.  My amp, also built by Aldo, is essentially a stereo version of the Western Electric 133 amp--348 input/driver tubes, 349 output tubes, the correct Western Electric input and output transformers, vintage caps and resistors, etc; the only part that is new is the power transformer.

My speakers were made by Strumenti Acustici Precisione, but, I replaced the midrange horn with a circa 1939 Western Electric 713b compression driver and a Western Electric horn (the replacement midrange is free standing on the top of the bass driver cabinet, just like the horn it replaces).   The WE 713b is a terrific midrange driver, but, it is now VERY hard to obtain a matched pair of these things.

The rest of the system is more modern and still in production, although the Viva Fono phono preamp is not a common item.

I recently heard a custom system built with three new G.I.P. field coil drivers: an 18" woofer in an open baffle; a clone of the Western Electric 555 compression driver feeding a clone of a large Yoshimura Laboratories horn; and a clone of the Western Electric 597 tweeter.  These drivers are exceedingly rare in this country and sound VERY good.  I think the 555 clone is at least as good as the genuine 555 drivers I've heard.  The 597 tweeter is particularly impressive in a non-impressive way (you are aware of the "air" and upper end extension without being really aware of the tweeter because it is so smooth and unobtrusive).  I have not heard many genuine 597 tweeters so I don't know how the clone compares with an original, but, the copy is really something special.