Bang for Your Buck: The Chronicals of a Thrift Departed

[falconcry72]

There is a certain point where the bang-for-your-buck price-to-performance ratio in any system is at its highest.

I got to that point and then consciously decided to abandon value as my goal in favor of performance. From this point on, every upgrade I make, while increasing the overall performance of my rig, will decrease the bang for the buck value. This was a mournful decision to make, and I'm still not sure of its legitimacy.

Legitimate or not, it's too late for me; I can tell I'm past the point of no return.

There may be hope for some of you, so I wanted to make a thread about the ultimate bang-for-your-buck 2-channel systems to let people know what is possible on different budgets.

Please list all associated gear and prices (what you actually paid or what the typical used value is, and where you scored it or where it can be scored).


Here is the system that I consider to be my peak value level:


Transport: Parasound CDP-1000 ($100 audiogon)
DAC: Parasound DAC-2000 Ultra ($250 club polk member)
Preamp: Parasound PLD-2200 ($300 ebay)
Power Amp: Parasound HCA-2200ii ($500 ebay)
Speakers: SDA-1C's w/ 194's ($300 club polk member)
Sub: Mirage BPS-150i ($150 ebay)
Speaker Cables: MIT AVT-3's ($150 ebay)
IC's: MIT AVT-1's ($150 for 2 pairs, club polk flea market and ebay)

Total purchase price: $1900 over a couple years
Total MSRP: just under $10k


Note that my most of my system is still the same; however, one by one I'm slowly starting to upgrade components, and every time I do, my bang for the buck value level decreases. I have accepted this fact as an inevitability, and I'm prepared to bravely face the dark and endless depths of upgraditis.


So what rigs do you guys consider to be your best bang for the buck?

[thsmith]

I won't go into what I have in my system but recently I put together a nice little system for my son with crs+ and a luxman for less than 4 bills. Just posted this morning with rta12s, nad 304 and denon 2900 for less than 3 bills.

I could easily live with either of these systems and be $1000s ahead but would not trade it for my main system. For the pleasure it is cheap at twice the price.

[falconcry72]

... For the pleasure it is cheap at twice the price.

Good point: performance and pleasure are not intrinsically linked.

[decal]

Good point: performance and pleasure are not intrinsically linked.

Evidently you have not visited the Bunny Ranch !!!

[cnh]

One of my favorite small systems is:

Nakamichi CA-5 Pre-amp NOS (205) Audiogon
Adcom GFA-545 (165) Polkie
Cambridge Soundworks Model 6 bookies by H. Kloss (100 on sale...new)
Pioneer BDP(CDP) 51fd (125) BB closeout price, new.

595 total and lots more original MSRP!

When I want to take that up a notch for Bigger sound, I de-closet the SDA 2Bs I got for about (100) from another Polkie.

And right now I'm listening to a pair of EPI 100Vs (100) and a Pioneer SX-838 (70) with an HK CDP. Very 'smooth' for an ancient receiver based system.

What, still 'too' much? How about a free Vector Research VR-5000 and a 50 dollar pair of HH Scott S-11 three way 10" vintage Acoustic suspension (craigslist)? And a $50 Sony CDP. Reasonable sound for 100.

cnh

[falconcry72]

Adcom GFA-545 (165) Polkie

nice system!

that adcom amp is definitely a good bang for your buck piece.

[falconcry72]

Evidently you have not visited the Bunny Ranch !!!

HAHA! I don't know, man; for me it's the ones that are hard to get that are more pleasureful, even if they're not good performers.