What makes a good piece of audio gear ?

A good piece of audio gear is something that accurately and consistantely reproduce the musical signal, does not load down negatively the next in line component, does not affect the sound/signal, is designed such that cables make little or no difference to the signal and can drive the next in line component accurately within its design specifications, and most importantly, does what the customer wants it to in his/her system well. If, all things being equal, your system is almost "there" and you add this piece of audio gear in, and then you are "there", then that makes it a good piece of audio gear.

enjoy

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question: What makes a good piece of audio gear ?

answer: The Audio Research factory.
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There are no secrets or magic involved. It's a mature industry, and has been for decades. A great piece will be one that meets your particular requirements and will be very reliable. Build quality is real, high quality components is not. All else is marketing and one-upmanship. Did I mention reliability? The more exotic or complex, the greater the failure rate.
Cheers

Luck. I say this after building a few things like speakers and passive preamps and having no talent.

Rok2id what do you mean by saying " high quality components is not"?
I wound think that this is a very important issue to designers and manufacturers;high failure either caused by bad design or a lower quality of parts selected creates bad press and results in product not being sold;if they fail in the warranty period there is extra cost now involved and will lower the margins.