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What name brand audio products are the best ever?

post #1 of 57
9/9/09 at 1:34pm
Thread Starter 
Who sets the gold standard of to die for equipment?

Marantz, Wadia, etc, who rules the galaxy of audio in your opinion?
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post #2 of 57
9/9/09 at 2:02pm
FM Acoustics for amplification
Kondo for preamplification
Kharma for speakers and cables
Accuphase for digital
Continuum for TT
Stax for Headphones
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post #3 of 57
9/9/09 at 2:07pm
Stax
Goldmund
Audio Research
Bowers & Wilkins
Krell
Mark Levinson
McIntosh
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post #4 of 57
9/9/09 at 2:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by krmathis View Post
Stax
Goldmund
Audio Research
Bowers & Wilkins
Krell
Mark Levinson
McIntosh
Except stax and possibly goldmund, I dont consider any of those as being ultra high end, they are more like ultra commercial high end...
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post #5 of 57
9/9/09 at 3:34pm
if i had a fair amount of disposable income, i would buy the Emm Labs TSD1/DAC2 and never think about upgrading my digital again (at least until the new model came out).

for headphones, an R10 and HE90 would be nice.

as for the rest (amps, cables, etc), not sure.
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post #6 of 57
9/9/09 at 3:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by GuyDebord View Post
Except stax and possibly goldmund, I dont consider any of those as being ultra high end, they are more like ultra commercial high end...
Guess it depends what we put in the "best" word... Note that 'high end' was not mentioned by the OP at all.

How about Burmester?
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post #7 of 57
9/9/09 at 11:11pm
I'm a SET guy, and the best I've heard to date are the Audio Note silver amps.

I'm told by a couple unrelated sources that the best they've heard is the Bridge Audio Laboratory gear.

BAlabo - Bridge Audio Laboratory
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post #8 of 57
9/9/09 at 11:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by vcoheda View Post
if i had a fair amount of disposable income, i would buy the Emm Labs TSD1/DAC2
DAC2 US$9,500 | TSD1 US$11,000



Quote:
Originally Posted by krmathis View Post
How about Burmester?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Burmester
On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, a limited edition of the 808 has been custom-built in 24 karat gold.

Burmester Audiosysteme GmbH ::: Products
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post #9 of 57
9/9/09 at 11:23pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Donald North View Post
I'm told by a couple unrelated sources that the best they've heard is the Bridge Audio Laboratory gear.

BAlabo - Bridge Audio Laboratory
Whoa! Beefy!
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post #10 of 57
9/10/09 at 12:46am
Nagra CDP
Krell/ML amps

There are dozens of speaker manufacturers...Wilson, Dynaudio, Sonus Faber, Revel, etc...
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post #11 of 57
9/10/09 at 3:43am
If I were to go solid state, I'd go with Pass Labs. Incredible stuff. I might pick up a Pass Labs preamp to go with the Orion+ setup. Yeah, it goes against most of my leanings, but Dr. Linkwitz recommends solid state for the setup and I trust his judgment.

As for tubes, DIY is really the ticket to the highest end. There are a few manufacturers that lavish on power supplies and parts, but the finest rigs I've seen are built with ridiculous levels of parts, cases and over the top power supplies. What some builders make would cost tens of thousands if offered commercially. Look at what Frank Cooter does. He's one of a few who build to that level with headphones, but there are many more who build that quality of gear in the speaker world. The nicething about tubes is that they're more accessible on the amateur level. You can't build a CD transport from scratch (though I'm sure someone has) but you can string together absurd levels of transformers, chokes, tubes, etc. at home and build something of far higher quality than anything offered commercially.
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post #12 of 57
9/10/09 at 4:03am
Ancient Audio - Wing system, Holography speakers, Lector Grand SE source, Grand Silver Mono - some prefer it to Audio Note On Gaku
Solid state - Pass, quite probably
Repacking cheapish Japanese DVD's - Goldmund
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post #13 of 57
9/10/09 at 6:45am
Boulder anyone?
Welcome to BoulderAmp.com
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post #14 of 57
9/10/09 at 7:06am
Stax. Perfect combination of state-of-the-art innovation, coherence, reference level quality and affordability.

Many audio brands share some of those characteristics, but I can't think of another one that combines them all in the way Stax does.
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post #15 of 57
9/10/09 at 7:40am
From a standpoint of historical significance to the high-end audio world, I would consider:

Amps:
McIntosh
Krell
Audio Research
Pass (Threshold/Pass/Forte/First Watt)

Speakers:
B&W
Mangnepan
Wilson
Quad
Vandersteen

Sources:
Meridian
Linn
SME
Oracle (?) - just due to their trend setting turntable that is still in production.

These companies have stood the test of time and have always produced products that are benchmarks for their respective categories. There will always be small companies that will produce a product here or there that may be "better," but when a book about the history of high-end audio comes out, the stalwarts above will definitely be listed.
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