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The Best & Rarest of all Stereo Gear

When it comes to stereo gear, to me, besides sound and build quality/reliability, the next thing I look for is how rare it is. There is just something about very rare, one-off, stereo gear that makes it very enticing to find and acquire. Over the years, I've been lucky enough to have found some rare gear and there's still others items that I'd like to find.

Recently, in my local CL, there was a very rare pair of Symdex speakers available for $50 that retailed at over $2200. When I inquired about them, they were gone. There is very little on the net about these speakers and later was lucky enough to have found a pair of Paisley Research AE-500 speakers. The Paisleys are amazing & are really giving my Omega Grande 8's a run for their money.

How about the Wingate 2000a amp? In 30 years, I've never seen one of these beauties for sale. Does anyone remember the EJ Jordan shoe box sized amp and preamp?

Please share if you are fortunate enough to have owned any ultra rare gear or if you are looking to acquire something unusual. (I'll share my own list of rare acquisitions and wants in a follow up post. I didn't want to make this initial post too lengthy).

Look forward to hearing your responses, thanks for reading,
Lou

128x128lou_setriodes

Showing 6 responses by viridian

viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Lou, the original Symdex speakers were designed by the great Kevin Voecks, who went on to design for Mirage, Snell, and is now with the Revel division of Harman Int.

Speaking of rare stereo gear, Andy Rappaport was Voecks best man at his wedding and designed a very rare class A power amp and tube preamps under the Rappaport marque.

The rarest, and most prized, gear though is mono, not stereo. Western Electric, Brook, RCA, James B. Lansing, etc. I have a nice collection, and am currently looking for one, or two, Electro Voice Patricians, or maybe a Hartsfield, mono rules!
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Lou, I had a pair of Tyr 2s back in the day. I was younger, and more impressionable, then. Bought them based on J. Gordon's review. Amazing, and I don't say that lightly, bass. Tight, deep, just incredible. People would look for the subwoofer or were just dumbfounded. I felt that the tweeter and woofer never integrated causing the midrange to lack any kind of coherence. But they were fun.
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Lou, no I didn't say fatigueing, that was not it. It was just a lack of midrange coherance. I bought them new so it was many moons ago and I am at the age where I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning.

I am not sure what electronics I was running at the time, but my guess is either an Adcom GFP555/GFA535 or PS 4H//B&K ST-140.

After all, every speaker is flawed, it's all a matter of what flaws we can live with. In a world of gutless little speakers, the Tyr 2 had real impact and scale. Please post back when you get your pair.
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
A. Stewart Hegeman was one of the geniuses of audio design. The Citation 2 was arguably the best amp made for several decades.
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Lou, Ian Paisley was one of the titans of Canadian speaker design. They were somewhat ahead of us there what with the reseach facility at the NRC. He was with API which owned Mirage, Energy, Sound Dynamics and a few others. Great speakers, not well known in the lower 48.

I lived with the Raunas for about a year and a half. And, as you said, they were super fun; I think that you sum up the strengths very well.

Vocals did not sound like they were coming from a single source. The phantom place, between the speakers, where the voice should come from; it seemed to spread and get larger at different freqencies, so the mouth seemed smaller than the throat, etc. That's the best way that I can communicate it abscent audio speak.

I still think that you would find them a good roll in the hay though and would appreciate hearing your reaction when you get them. I have not heard a pair in this century, so take what I have to say with a full shaker of salt.
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Macrojack, that would probably be the Win strain gauge cartridge system by Dr. Sao Zaw Win.

Those Draco tuners are rare, but before they had a split they were marketed by Sherwood. I have seen a few of those and I believe that they are fairly common for an esoteric tuner.

Lou, almost by definition receivers are mass market goods and most tend to be made in rather larger quantities than more esoteric components. That said, Setton is a rather rare receiver marque.
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