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Best Hobby related purchase of 2010

I did a lot of horse trading in 2010, since my job sucked, and I didn't have a lot else to do, and I was wondering what the best deal I made, audio-wise was in 2010.

At first I thought buying Bryston BDA-1 after trying a ton of other DAC's, but since I eventually sold the Bryston due to lack of use, that was out.

Then I thought the modded PS Audio GCPH after trying so many great phono stages, but I after considering the surprise when I got the first of 2 expected Def Tech Supercube 1 subs (ended up with only one since it sounded so good). But that made me think maybe I should look at software purchases, and that's where I am for the year.

I got some great Japanese pressings of favorite alums, and a sublime (which is playing right now) pressing of Pink Floyd-The Wall (Radio station copy), and I realized I had a great software year.

So, the best audio hobby purchase of 2010: The Beatles MFSL Box for $600. Albums where pristine, and had the GeoDisc and booklet. A bit yellow on the covers et all but I didn't care. I love this set, and I know many collectors think there are not the best of the Beatles albums, but they are the pinnacle to me.

So anyone want to share their best 2010 audio deal?
macdadtexas
sonnyyoung
22 posts
 
Macbook Pro and Tranquility DAC.
buconero117
2,311 posts
 
Blindjim, you are in trouble. Your 'smoking' money will lead to overspending on audio, and that is a good thing or is it a bad thing. Since you will now be living longer, best you open a 'gold' account and put your 'smoking' money in it, otherwise you just found another habit to lead you to the poor house. Enjoy the music.
jndean
119 posts
 
I bought a 45 watt Onix EL 34 integrated amp to drive my Triangle Celius speakers with grand results.

I also set up a full system for friends who are a married couple down the street and who both love music but were playing it through a 25 yo receiver with the left channel out and some small Yamaha speakers. They now have a 7 channel Marantz receiver and DVD and CD player and Triangle Comete speakers and a Marantz Ipod hook up and all for 1/2 price from Accessories 4 Less and other places. The wife payed for most of the gear as a surprise for her husband. It ended up costing me a few hundred out of pocket for speaker stands and for the Ipod dock and for a center channel as gifts as was my choice, but they are delighted with their new sound for CDs as well as surround sound DVDs.
It was fun playing santa.
John
krell_man
827 posts
 
On the expensive end, it was the CH Acoustic X20 IC's, SC's and PC's. These easily have been the best in my system. They seem to have no sonic signature of their own and work with the same 'no signature' magic on every component I had or auditioned. http://chacoustic.com/, http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?rcabl&1282568800

On the inexpensive end, it was the three Enacom AC filters on the same circuit as my system. Dave Magnan talked about them on his website in the tweaks section. They are only $85.00 each, and three of them do a fantastic job cleaning up AC grunge all of the way through the midrange frequencies.

Chuck
timtim
84 posts
 
Buying myelf a pair of custom Cirrus loudspeakers for only $3500, when they sound like 6 figure loudspeakers ! It has to be the signle biggest steal in the industry today.
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