On 2003-12-22, wß wrote:


You can still buy good sounding equipment but unfortunately it comes
from the fringe edge audiophile companies that are somewhat small
companies and the prices are way outta site.

IMHO, the best bet these days is the used market. I would much rather
invest in an Apt Holman or Audionics pre-amp and an old Mac power amp
than most of what's available today, IN THE SAME PRICE RANGE. Heck even
an old Marantz receiver is better than the cardboard and plastic crap on
the shelves today.


The problem is finding vacuum tubes. No one makes the same quality
tubes I used to pay $40 for a matched pair of power tubes. That
matched set of new old-stock (NOS) tubes now costs $400 ...if you can
find them! Because of this, the old high end tube amps like Marantz,
Fisher, and MacIntosh can now be had for peanuts. As you point out,
there are fringe amp makers. They've redesigned their products to use
the inferior Chinese and East European tubes. But, they've put
absolutely insane prices on them. $5-20K is typical. Screw that!
I'll continue to use my circa '64 Fisher/JBL system as long as I can.

nb