Stuff you bought on Audiogon, but never have seen another?

For years, I wanted an MFA preamp. I finally saw a mint Magus B for sale here on Audiogon. I bought it immediately. I check from time to time but rarely see anything from MFA. It still works and sounds very good.

Magneplanar Tympani T-IVa, First Watt B4 x/o, Zeta tonearm.

Wow ! Cant even find a pic of a Adcom DA 700 . Must be rarer than rare

There is an Adcom GDA 700 on A'gon now if you want to see it. 

Nestorovic 5as speakers.

I don't look for the same item after I got it. With one exception - need another Dominus power cord for a fair price.

I tend to search the ads a lot. Buying, not buying does not matter. To see what is selling, what the prices are, and perhaps to snare that once in a lifetime item. Searching, one tends to notice what one owns. Kind of like when you own a car.. If you see another like it, it registers. (if you are a car person) I can tell you, owning a Ford Focus ST hot hatch, some on the road, I see one maybe once a week. What is rare as can be is a Ford Fiesta ST Rarer than a Focus RS.                                  
And I would mention, the Adcom DA700 now for sale is the second one I ever saw, and seeing it, part of the basis of why I started this thread

@tonkay

An MFA Magus preamp would be interesting to try again.  In the late 80's I was demoing one against the Counterpoint 5.1 and ended up going with the pricier Counterpoint - - but it was close.  Then the Counterpoint blew up on me too many times, so I sold it and went solid state for awhile (ah, that fun pendulum of tubes and ss!).  There was a very captivating flavor of tubes with the Magus.  Enjoy!

When I bought the MFA (Moore, Frankland and Associates) Magus, we lived in the SF Bay Area. It gave me comfort to know that Scott Frankland (the “F” in MFA) was still working (doing repairs, etc) in the San Jose area. I don’t know if that is still true but, fortunately, the Magus continues to work fine. I use it with a Classe Audio DR-15 amp.

This is tricky -  I have gotten some relatively rare items on Audiogon (Symphonic Line Kraft 250 mono amplifiers, Accuphase PS-500 regenerator / conditioner, Stahl-Tek Vekian Opus DAC, Tidal Contriva Diacera SE speakers) but I cruise the audio ads somewhat frequently, so its hard to say I have never seen another (although I would be comfortable saying no more than a couple). 

However, here are several "sole" examples I can think of:

Silver Rock Phono preamplifier  (was Stereo Times review unit)
EASE / Counterpoint Magnum Opus phono premplifier (a Counterpoint SA-9 with upgraded parts and cosmetics - only a handful ever made)
Silver Rock TVC with two switchable inputs (almost all of them are one input)
Promitheus Signature TVC (with two chassis and copper plates - still kicking myself for selling it)

Following up on the above posts, am a fan of MFA as well - Scott Frankland (the "F" in MFA) is a stand up guy.
 

Don’t see much in the way of "audio innovations" product lying about....

https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649471135-audio-innovations-classic-25-early-audionote-best-...

Note (heh) the one line in the advert....:

"Audio Innovations was Peter Qvortrups first company before taking over Audionote UK."
Not really seen in the USA but much loved in Canada.

Pretty dang decent integrated for $600us. and, it has black velvet alps potentiometers/balance controls.

You can see by the layout that it is intelligently designed. Looks like it may never suffer thermal issues. That’s a good thing as other versions of it did suffer thermal problems. (800 series integrated, el34)

1) Voce audio V1 speakers - I bought the proto type from Vince & have never seen another pair offered.
2) Joule Electra Destiny mono amps - 310 wpc - I think only a dozen pairs were ever made (they could melt an igloo) 16 6C33B tubes per side.

@tonykay I have a Magus that I bought around 95. I only use it as a phonostage. I’ve had Scott Frankland upgrade it twice. A third time I gave it to him for a couple months to use as a test bed. He figured out a new mod he’d never done on any other. It’s much treasured but, if I had a chance on a Wavestream Kinetics phonostage, I’d jump. 

Nothing this week ill keep checking.

VAC 22.1 vacuum tube dac.  Hdcd decoding using the Pacific Microsonics pmd 1000 dac chip.  It doesn’t get a lot of use these days but still sounds decent.  An unusual piece for sure.

I too like searching the ads to keep abreast of the used market and that very rare once in a lifetime piece.

A few years ago I bought a very rare Ditton 240 integrated amp made by Celestion with an upgraded Shunyata power cord.  Paisley Research AE500’s and Rauna Tyr II’s are also pretty rare and wonderful sounding too.  I owned the Paisleys for about 5 years and moved and needed smaller speakers, so now I have the Raunas and have thoroughly enjoyed both speakers.

A pair of MBL radialstrahler 121 omni monitors.

I always lusted after the big 101s but could never afford them.   Years ago a pair of 121s appeared on audiogon for a ridiculously low price because they had been damaged in shipping - losing one of the grills (which I’d never use anyway).

i snapped them up - the price was low enough hat I didn’t even care if I could never resell them.   Been extremely happy with that purchase.   Like others I habitually monitor the various audiomarts and have never seen the 121s appear again (before or since) on audiogon.  I don’t think I could part with them due not only to their sound, but on the grounds I would be so unlikely to replace them if I let them go and regretted it.

Yeah, Radialstrahler 101e would be my dream speaker too.When the 101e price went up the former distributor had a pair of the early model for sale here. $40,000. new in crates. Sadly I did not have 40K laying around...

elizabeth,

When I was thoroughly in MBL fever many years ago, I was seriously considering how to wrangle a pair of 101s. Then I heard through another audio pal/writer that someone was getting rid of a pair of 101Ds due to a divorce. They were something like $45,000USD new at the time, and these were fairly new and in mint condition. My audiopal talked to the seller who said he’d sell them to me for $12,000 ! That actually put a mint pair in financial reach. But I hummed and hawed on it a bit too long not totally sure if I could go for it. Then when I decided "hell, yes, I must own these" it was too late. They owner had put them on audiogon auction!

Cursing myself, I decided to bid for them. Starting price was lower than $12,000. As the bidding was drawing to a close, I had the impression I was bidding against someone else...even if by proxy bidding. As the last minute of bidding wore down, and the bids were going up by increments, I planned to totally leapfrog the other bidder with a final big bid. I had my finger on the mouse as the counter got to the final seconds and sent off the bid. But...a glitch in the system made my final bid not go through!

So...the other guy got it for his final bid, which was well below what my final bid was going to be!

It was devastating. I even found out that the other buyer was not even an audiophile per se, but more of a rich guy who "just thought they looked kind of cool."

That one has nagged me for years, and I’ve never seen 101s for anything approaching the low price those ones went for. They are permanently out of my reach after that. :-(

Do you all know about HIFISHARK ?for searching and finding Hifi
Once you create an account and login, you can save searches and be emailed when it finds them for you 
https://www.hifishark.com/