What are your favorite 'giant killer' pieces of audio equipment?

I went from A Musical Fidelity kw 500 and dm 25 cd player/dac and BansW 802d(2004) had to sell because of retirement money problems and when things got better real fast got Def-Techs 7000sc and Vincent 236mkII and Esoteric sa50 in same well treated room and weather you think im kidding or not it made the more expensive system sound enemic. For half the price I got almost twice the sound quality and im not a novice. Luck, fooling myself, whatever, I dont believe all the high end malarky anymore. Good sound can be had with carefull matching...John M.

 

Very true

 

Spotify as my main music source. Havent picked up a CD in months.

 

Send lawyers, guns and money

Yup, and I have.

As I compared my Optimus 3400 transport directly to expensive transports from Mark Levinson and others I can say that it was a fair fight under fair conditions. I brought the 3400 and my battery power supply to db audio of Berkeley California. The best that the folks from db audio could come up with is "It's a matter of taste," in no way could anyone make the claim that it was inferior sonically to the Mark Levinson transport. I sensed more depth and detail and others did too. I would say that in 1994 the Optimus 3400 with my battery supply was as good as anything out there, I'm sure there has been enough progress since to find inexpensive transports and players that are better than anything in 1994, but as of 1994 the Radio Shack Optimus 3400 as a CD transport was one of the best sounding on the market.

 

In the valley of the HO-Ho-Ho . . .

Well . . .

My first wife was 6' 1", does that count?

 

No one has mentioned the NAD 3020,3020A or the 3020B??? GREAT amplifier regardless of which model you get.

 

Good though . . .

That is exactly what Steve Hoffman is talking about.

After hearing high end amps, the NAD 3020/7020 is like a high-dive into a pool of mud.

I've owned two.

 

Each to his own.

You can add the 3120 version too.

 

I don't have enough money to buy the real reference pieces to compare against but the cables I listed I have compared to far more expensive cables and found that they match up very well.

The better cables still beat em, but they are a bargain at the price.

 

Sometimes the giants are overrated. The 'giant killer' pieces of audio equipment are usually underrated, scoffed at, and usually not lived with by the non believers.

mayhem, maybe.

 

I have yet to meet a person who owned a giant and bought a lower item because they thought is sounds as good or better. I'm sure that if you were offered a dcs system and a Sony 5400 everyone would take the dcs.
Money may not be able to buy you love but it does buy you a significant upgrade in sound.

 

I thought the beauty of being into audio was finding those hidden (cheap) gems, 'giant killer' pieces. I guess that would be up to me. It's easy enough to buy your way into good sound with the right resources, (and still complain it's not perfect, perfect speakers ha) but it's a real <cough> steal when you get the same results at home for less. Everybody loves a bargain.

(get this joke) Sign me Scottish, pretend.

 

Money can buy love, but only for a short period of time.

 

btw: Comparing a car or anything else for that matter to stereo equipment is bogus. Even if I started the joke with Fiero, Ferrari, eh.

 

Yellowtec PUC2
USB-DAC, 24/192, balanced out


XTZ Divine


Supra Sword

 

That's what I'm thinking. I don't think anyone's claiming that NAD would outperform Burmester but it might compare favorably with other products within its price range.

 

Exactly.

 

I think there are "giant killers" but mostly in the DIY community. Someone who builds their own amp or speakers can produce a piece that can compare with similar devices 3 to 5 times the price.

 

Ok. I gotcha. Good point.

 

Speaking of giant killers in their class, class. Made in USA JBL HLS 610 bookshelf speakers are hard to beat. The research money was made up by Canadian research grants. They would make any audio equipment proud.


Read more:http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/bookshelf-speakers/jbl/hls-610/prd_119710_4290crx.aspx

 

Mind you, you'll need $500 for the power supply.

Whereas a true Giant Killer has to punch well outside of its weight class. Like the $129 Optimus 3400 successfully competing against $10,000 transports at the time it was on the market.

That's a Giant Killer.

 

Well, I can only relay my story. I went from FM Acoustics to Bryston, and I couldn't tell a big difference. The FM had slightly better sound quality. The Bryston is also more reliable overall than the FM was. The FM amp would shut down if pushed too hard. The price/performance ratio of this Bryston stuff I own is off the charts, imo.

 

instead of getting into semantic arguments about a thread title, wouldn't it be more fun to talk about the cheap stuff you've stumbled across that you love and that rocks your world?

Okay, in my case, sorry to be unoriginal but my NAD 3060 is a really beautiful sounding little guy. I don't listen to it and think "if only..." I listen to it and think "gosh that sounds great!!!" Happens to me all the time.

But my favorite "pieces of gear that can reasonably challenge much fancier items" (less poetic, right?) are my Fisher 30As, which I've posted about many times. I just find them pure listening pleasure wherever I use them. And while I haven't walked in the valley of the giants, I've been to audio shows and expensive stores and listened to some pretty swanky stuff.

It's a nice feeling when you get to really enjoy something that way overperforms its price range. I wouldn't worry about a little hyperbole in the description

 

I certainly understand the value of good sounding, low-priced audio equipment. The bulk of the equipment I've owned falls into that category.

I thought what our host had to say is valid. I suspect many on this forum give opinions on equipment they haven't properly heard or haven't heard at all. While I don't doubt the joy Pioneer and NAD equipment can provide or the value that gear provides for their listeners I suspect that many on this forum haven't any real experience with high-end gear and really don't have meaningful references of comparison—what Giant was killed? where? how was it killed? I'm not hearing that. I'm hearing I swear By "X", "X" is the greatest.

But compared to what?