budget component in high-end system?


Does anyone use a budget component in an otherwise high-end system? You always see reviews of budget components where the reviewers says the piece comes very close to things costing much, much more money. Does anyone use any of these so called "budget" components by choice? ex. $500 cd player with $10,000 amplification.
fruff1976

Showing 1 response by krell_man

A little more than a year ago, for 3-4 weeks I pulled my old B&K PT-3 preamp ($600.00) and B&K ST-1400 Mk II amp ($700.00) out of the closet and inserted them into my system while my tube preamp ($5,000.00) and monoblocks ($6,000.00) were being repaired. A tube had gone bad and it blew the preamp and the amps.

I still had the rest of my system in place ($40k), I just inserted the two B&K pieces in place of the high end preamp and amp. I was surprised, because I could have easily lived with that system if I had to.

I believe that the real key in this situation was the Stealth Indra interconnects between the DAC and preamp and preamp and amp. I believe that they allowed the B&K pieces to receive and process the best possible signal.

I find myself just shaking my head whenever someone says that they don't see how an interconnect can affect a system. I've heard it over and over, and in this case, it was an amazing revelation, showing that these budget pieces had a lot more quality than I had previously thought they had.

Chuck