What was your best Audio Purchase of 2015?

Lots of music
First foray into custom CIEM-Empire Ears Apollo -X with balanced Norne Therium Silver cable with a Kobicon connector for my
Cavalli Liquid Carbon amp, and Oppo HA-2 portable amp/dac. Love the comfort, sound and isolation while listening. Lastly just ordered new Roon based server and player-ripper.
Happy new year to all.

NickCLC-amp.jpgIMG_EE ciem.PNG
 
A year of polishing the stone for me
- updates from Kuzma for both the XL turntable and the 4 Point tonearms
- finishing out the loom of Goebel Lacorde Cable
- another wonderful cartridge for the collection, Ortofon A-95
- an incremental upgrade at DAC from BADA Reference to the Gryphon Kalliope

Have a great 2016 Sharks......
 
i bought a hegel h30 this year and it's a great match with my gamut L7 speakers. i also got a magum dynalab md 90t tuner that i love in partial trade for my classe ct 2300 amp. i'm sad because i have to sale the magum dynalab md 90t tuner to help pay for the hegel h30, i know i'm going to regret this one. john
 
2015 has been an expensive and busy year for me...not that I'm complaining 😊

Upgrades were:

- SF Aida ( best purchase of the year )
- Koetsu Blue Lace Platinum
- Zyx Universe II
- Lamm LP2.1
- Two Graham Phantom Elites
- Shunyata Triton V2
- 2 units of Shunyata Typhon
- KS Elations from Emotions
 
Paul said:
So Bruce, how you compare with your main rig ? When do you listen to your living room system vs main rig ?


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Paul....These days I listen to the second system more than the main....with the Holidays and family and friends around. I love what I am getting from the simple and sweet setup. The system fills the main floor with music and I love to listen while I cook. Having said that, my main rig is simply amazing and it is the best I have ever had, by far. I just added an Audio Research REF6.....paired it with my Lampi and Hegel and it is a stunning match along with the Raidho D1s and Revel Salon2s.
 
Mike said:
What was your best audio purchase of 2015? Was it a new favorite album? A new cable? A new turntable? A new DAC? What?

For me it's definitely my Avantgarde Duo Mezzo XD's. They are so dynamic, so musical, even sweet sounding, with no traditional horn colorations. Their capabilities to dial in the bass, crossover, etc. make them really sing beautifully in my room. I didn't think they would sound THIS good.
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Nice question, difficult answer - actually three.

Still enjoy my Magico S3s a lots, great speakers. That said, replacing my Mac Mini with mods and Audirvana+ with an Aurender N100H just hit one out of the park. And just before X-mas my summerhouse system took a leap with the magnificent Ayre Codex.




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Rob, My store Excalibur carried John's Versa Dynamics TT, when it was running perfectly nothing else was close in the late 80's, I might even have some set up tools for the 2.0.

puroagave said:
Several pieces came through my system this year, the standouts:

1) My best score to date, the versa dynamics 2.0 'table.

2) close behind a pair of quad esl 57. These are probably my 6th pair of quads and my 3rd or 4th pr of 57s (depends if you count my long term loaners). they're currently with kent McCollum being rebuilt, this time i will add two vandy subs and Max's super tweeter - sort of a mini levinson HQD system for the modern age.

3) Technics RS1500. my first serious foray into R2R. It has Nortronics heads wired out for repro. I acquired an ATR aria around the same time but i'm now going in a different direction with the preamp (tubes).
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VPI prime
Hegel P30
Hegel H30
Sony DSD player
McIntosh headphone amp
Hi-fi man HE1000.

Yes I have no money left in the bank. But happy.

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For me I felt like I entered a new league in speakers with the Maggie 20.7s and TAD CR1s (moving them to my home in Bend tomorrow). The Spiral Groove upgrade to sg1.2 took an amazing table and added more slam and silence - well worth the upgrade from 1.1 status. 2015 was also the year I discovered Marantz reference gear (ma9s2 monos and SA7S1 spinner) which supplanted my long-cherished Constellation and Sony Modwright gear. Everything was great before - it's just now more special and emotionally compelling. Going into 2016 I have an HRS flagship rack in burled walnut on the way (out with the swaying quadraspires), and will in January acquire a pair of Air Tight 3011r flagship mono amps and reacquiring a ate-2001 preamp to see how it compares to arc ref 6. And finally will sell the Lampi and get a Berkeley Reference Dac with Berkeley USB. The madness never ends.


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My two purchases
Main and expensive so far in 2015
Dynaudio evidence master
And Vitus SS -102.
But I must explain I have not received either of them.
Expecting delivery this week.
Interesting if it falls in 2015 or 2016.
 
o0OBillO0o said:
Ah good, It is good to have a solid back up methodology and it's another thing to make an entirely complex and costly issue for music that never was recorded in "high resolution."
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If the recoding was not done live in the studio using actual 24/96 equipment it is not hi res. There is very little, if any, actual hi res 2-channel recordings available.
 
Mike, the newer album might sound better but it is not true hi res. For that to happen the recording would have to had been made live in a studio using actual 24/96 equipment.
 
Replacing Shindo GM 70 amps with Pass XA30.8 (still can't believe it but the proof is in the pudding not the green glow...)
Replacing Audience power conditioner with PS5 (wow, I must have cruddy AC)
Replaced Jriver with Toon (what a relief it is...)
Subscribed to Tidal (having a ball listening to all these jazz albums--admittedly a lot of which I have but never pulled from my vinyl shelves)

Happy New Year!
Steve
 
Although I purchased a Shunyata Typhoon and some Stillpoints Ultra SS this year my greatest improvement in sound by far came when Stirling Trayle of http://www.audiosystemsoptimized.com/ passed by to do a full set up on my system last spring. He is costly but probably the single best investment anyone can make. All in all I can finally hear what my system is truly capable of doing, isn't that what we are all looking for!

For those of you interested in knowing more here's a very recent and good review by Roy Gregory on Stirling's services http://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipment/audio_systems_optimized.htm
 
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