What would you deem be your best purchase value wise over the years? From record brushes, cables to equipment.
Naim Nait 50 without a shadow of doubt. This purchase brought genuine HiFi into my life.
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Much of my acoustic treatment, and the value of each is not the first one or the last one, but the collective and their arrangement.
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I’m with you on the N50, something very special about it
Can’t explain why it just works for me
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I listen to music every single chance I get now and that’s not something I’ve ever done before. I’m also finding I’m getting more emotionally attached to music. I know that sounds cringey but it’s true 
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My used early NAT05. Had it serviced at the factory. And had my Yagi fettled. Glorious.
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Taking value as audio value for the money spent, often buying secondhand has contributed to vfm for many components ve the years, but I’d say best I achieved is probably my current speakers, PMC MB2, which cost me £5k in 2022.
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So the last one then?
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Primare NP5 Mk2 streaming bridge.
Transformed the performance of the ndac.
Bargain at £500.
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The nordost Valhallas 2 , dCS.. to choose one , dCS
Valhalla/Ittok/K9 LP12 for me
Can’t think of any accessories that rank as highly
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Best value new was the Nait 2. One service in its lifetime and still sounding sweet. If I had to cut back that would be the last one to go. Best value pre owned has to be a manky looking Nac 62 that had been insulated with a stuck on vinyl quilted cover. Darren did his magic on the insides, and some application with a heat gun and a rattle can brought the case back to normal.
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Can’t say just yet…as I am about to order some more…two of which type I have never previously ordered or experienced.
PS: I keep telling Mrs E-of-E that this really will be the last purchase of acoustic treatment.
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I bought a S/H pair of Celestion SL600 speakers with stands in nice condition for £180 in 1992. I sold the speakers 20 years later for £670 and retained the stands. Not bad value Methinks.
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A Superlumina cable to replace the stock one connecting my SCap to the SNAXO. Genuine eye opening upgrade for the money. The SL interconnect and SNAXO to 250s were good, but not in the same league for uplift.
2nd place my Tidal subscription. Allows me to explore new music so easily, before I buy the download.
Bruce
Invariably for me it’s the small stuff. The one exception would be adding an XPS2 to my CDX2 which took it from okay to world class. Outside of that it would be the iFi LAN Silencer.
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Same here! Started with a s/h nDAC at a very good price. That was a complete revelation, I had all but stopped playing CDs but the nDAC made me open drawer after drawer. That encouraged me to buy a s/h NP5 to replace my Auralic Vega. Sold the Vega and spent the money I saved on Tone Poet Blue Note LP’s. I find this a very satisfying metric to measure value for money
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Hmm….let me think, from 1987 till now, VFM wise, I think my best purchases were:
Nait 2
Nait 5i-2
Sonneteer Campion
Rega IO
Dali Oberon 1
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I’d have to volunteer my Atom HE. For just over £2,000 you get something that offers incredible performance into active speakers. I believe it’s pretty good with headphones too.
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Synology NAS. Changed how I listened to music.
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