absolute best component you ever owned


I am sure we all have a truely favorite component, be it speakers, amp, TT, listening chair, etc. What are your favorites?
tireguy
The rug I hung about 2.5" out from the back wall of my room that got in-room frequency response to within +/- .5dB from 1kHz up. At $150 including hardware, it's the cheapest component of the system, best improvement I ever made.

You can take my speakers... Just leave my rug! :)

Niels.
Tivo, (TV personal recorder). I own about $30,000.00 worth of audio equipment. For $500 (300 for unit, 200 for lifetime service)Tivo is definitely the best bang for the buck. Any quests that spend anytime using my Tivo are hooked and go buy one. Tivo is my favorite piece, keep in mind I have pre-amps that cost $5000, but enjoy how much time Tivo saves me. You will never say the words "Darn, nothing good on TV today" Once you can pause live tv, or better yet, rewind live tv, you will never want to go without that ability. I've watched tv for 1 yr now with Tivo and have never had to watched a commercial yet !!! I can watch a football game in about 1.5 hrs. This is truly an amazing product who time has come. If you have never heard of personal recorders, check into it, you'll be glad you did.
Tireguy:

Here are the best components I ever owned. And in fact, I still own them. One of them being my Nakamichi BX-300 Cassette Deck (which is 14 years old now, and STILL in immaculate condition too. It was one of the last "affordable three motor, direct-drive decks" EVER made.... only the Nakamichi CR-4A (the LAST affordable three motor, direct-drive deck) followed after my BX-300 was discontinued. And might I add that it is still one of the decks that can go from 20Hz. to 20,000Hz. in frequency response. A figure that most newer decks STILL can't match today (and most other decks from its era either for that matter), aside from the TOL Sony ES deck. How many other decks besides other Naks and the mentioned Sony ES deck can do that?? Not many.....). Then it is my Magnum Dynalab FT-101 Tuner. I cannot say enough about my tuner. This thing pulls in stations I never knew existed, and definitely stations that any of my previous receivers or tuners could NOT pull in before. And in addition to its station pulling power, it sound great on top of that. Easily one of the best audio acquisitions I have made in the last few years. My Sennheiser HD-580 Headphones come in after that. When you cannot listen to speakers, these cans are the next best thing. Though, I would be curious as to how good the newer Sennheiser HD-600's sound. Those are the best components that I have owned and still own right now.

Oh, by the way..... my Adcom GFP-750 Preamplifier deserves honorable mention. To do better than the Adcom GFP-750 right now, then I have to look at investing in a Mark Levinson No. 380 or a No. 380S. And to do that, we're talking about a lot of moolah here. No thanks. My Adcom will do JUST fine.

That seems to be it right about now, Tireguy. :-)

--Charles--
I changed my mine, its my Tivo digital recorder. I cound live without the Stax earspeakers but not the TIVO recorder. Its GREAT. If u dont have one u dont know what u are missing!