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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
larryi
1,972 posts
 
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.   
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Without question the Bar B Que amp and Blowtorch preamp from Curl, Crump and Thompson.  You would literally have to pry them off of a dead man's hands.
loanidan's avatar
loanidan
3 posts
 
Hello Lou,
I have an EJ Jordan preamp that I am considering selling. It needs a little work, but sounds great.  I was looking for information and saw this post.
please let me know if you're interested or have any information on these. 
Thanks,
Dan
seattle, wa
martykl
3,563 posts
 
Two brands come to mind:

MFA (Moore, Frankland and Assoc).  Bruce Moore had his own eponymous company, too, which produced the Companion (sic?) preamp.  I think it was his highest profile design and it had its moment in the sun some time back.  However, the Companion was always made in boutique quantities, so they were never commonplace, despite the high quality and positive press.  The MFA stuff was even rarer.

Audire gear was designed by a former NASA guy called Julius Siksnius (sic?).  I once bought his Diffet preamp and a matching power amp from Crazy Eddie, a big box discounter in the metro NYC area.  They somehow got the franchise before Audire pulled it and I bought the pair on close out.  I probably should have hung on to it.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 
I had a pair of Braun made version of the old Quad ESL, only pair I’ve ever seen. Peter Walker allowed Braun to make them for the German market only. I sold them to Brooks Berdan---he wanted them for his Hi-Fi museum.
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