What are your favorite budget finds in audio?

Atlas Navigator interconnects £50. It wasn't until joining here that I even thought of looking for cables preowned!

 

I like finding used CD's on the cheap that are actually good. Same with vinyl. I have found many near mint LP's at the Record Archive for eight bucks apiece.
A good vintage receiver is also a very nice prize.

 

My Lafayette LR-9090. Free. Found it on the sidewalk one Sunday morning. Apart from the wonky power/speaker select switch, which I bypass with a switched power strip it works and sounds great!

 

I found one in Goodwill for my brother, who has yet to hook it up yet !!

 

Paradigm model 9 speakers $85. Purchased them for a needy friend.

 

Just picked up a Luxman M6000 amp at a garage sale for $150.
I just tried it and it seems to work fine, now I'll do some research and see if I over paid.

 

I've discovered a universal player that can be found used on eBay (or like places) for between $100 to $150 that stands up well to today's equipment that costs many times the price you'll pay for this player. Does CD well enough to enjoy, and makes high-res discs really shine. It's name: Pioneer DV-79 AVi. Don't knock it till you've heard it.

 

From Kijiji:

Pioneer PL-61 turntable - free
Akai reel to reel - free
Pioneer QX9900 receiver - free
Technics SL-D202 turntable - $20

From Goodwill:

Kenwood AR-404 receiver - $20
Technics SB-7000A speakers (barely used) - $50

 

Same as above, but missing one foot. $5.00 at a local garage sale.

 

I'll post a picture later today after I get back from school; but a co-worker of mine found me a Sony PS-X5 for $10 at a garage sale. It kept having this problem where the tonearm would move over then keep returning. I took it apart and found the repeat button was stuck. The automatic operation doesn't seem to cycle right. But at least I can operate it manually and listen to my records. What more can you ask for $10? It didn't have a stylus on the Shure M91E cartridge. I ordered a new stylus and got a better cart - the Audio Technica AT95E. I think it sounds good for what I paid. Got a Pyle Pro PP444 phono preamp (bought it because it was cheap, seems to work okay). Looked up some videos on how to balance out the tonearm and align the stuff right. Put some records on yesterday and sounded wonderful.

My parents even got in on the fun and put on some records they liked listening to back when they were my age. I also found a mint copy of Miles Davis - Bitches Brew in one of the crates my parents' records are stored in. They were leaving all these to me anyway and I don't think I am going to sell them. I hope to digitize them and keep the records cleaned up and stored away so that someday if I have kids, they can enjoy vinyl records when they're old enough too.

 

For a new unit that is a bargain I find the Yamaha CD player CD-S300 to be exceptional sounding. I haven't yet been able to unseat it despite some extensive auditioning of units 3X to 4X its price.

 

Got out the old Jolida JD-9 phono pre yesterday and was surprised how good it sounds still. Was able to sell to a new audiophile.

 

That's how we keep this hobby going Lee....... Well done.

 

And remember people, old doesn't mean obsolete. I can vouch for that especially lately. A well designed piece of gear will always be a well designed piece of gear, and will almost always continue to sound good.

 

No, you surely didn't. You scored big time!

 

I just bought this exact player for DVD audio ... it arrived yesterday.

I am now on the hunt for more DVD-A discs to play

 

Don't forget to try it with SACD too. You may be pleasantly surprised. Glad you found one.

 

Lee, that was the player that introduced me to the wonders of SACD. Kind of wish I still had it, but as I advanced I gave it to a friend to try and get him started.........

 

If you're looking for a wonderful digital player (for anything but Blu-Ray), at a price few can object to, finding one of these is the bargain of the century. Just wonderful on high-res discs, not bad on CD, and built to top-o-the-line Pioneer Elite standards.

 

Revisiting the thread----Among the best bang for the buck purchases has been a Tivoli table radio. $50 at Costco. Excellent as a table radio, iPod/iPad music player and as a separate tuner.

 

A KLH Model 21 FM table radio. It's a solid state Henry Kloss design.

It was given to me by a colleague who was retiring. I went in to her office and noticed it on her shelf. I told her a little about it and she was impressed that I knew about it. She was clearing out things prior to her last day and said she wanted me to have the radio because she thought I would appreciate it. Wow! What a great parting gift from her.

Scott

 

Another for CD and SACD playback is the Pioneer Elite DV-58AV
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/Blu-ray-Disc/Elite-DVD-Players/DV-58AV?tab=manuals
I have one as a spare that I picked up NOS for 100 bucks. The redbook CD playback gives my Marantz SA8005 a run for the money and the SACD playback is slightly better in some instances, believe it or not.

 

Does the DV-58 play DVD-A as well? I can't remember.

 

From a local pawn shop I got a Yamaha ax- 700u integrated amp for $19.99.
Price was cheap because it didn't have an HDMI port or posts for 5.1 channels!!

Same day I found a Marantz 2215 receiver for $40.

From the Habitat for Humanity thrift shop I got a pair of Advent Legacy 2's for $21 a speaker because it was 'purple tag' day. I did have to refoam those though.

 

Today's budget find was a pair of Sennheiser HD 430's for £6, they work perfectly though I'll have to spend around three times that on some nice new pads, even so they should still beat any headphones below £100 and a fair few above. I do like the vintage Sennheiser sound.