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The Best & Rarest of all Stereo Gear

When it comes to stereo gear, to me, besides sound and build quality/reliability, the next thing I look for is how rare it is. There is just something about very rare, one-off, stereo gear that makes it very enticing to find and acquire. Over the years, I've been lucky enough to have found some rare gear and there's still others items that I'd like to find.

Recently, in my local CL, there was a very rare pair of Symdex speakers available for $50 that retailed at over $2200. When I inquired about them, they were gone. There is very little on the net about these speakers and later was lucky enough to have found a pair of Paisley Research AE-500 speakers. The Paisleys are amazing & are really giving my Omega Grande 8's a run for their money.

How about the Wingate 2000a amp? In 30 years, I've never seen one of these beauties for sale. Does anyone remember the EJ Jordan shoe box sized amp and preamp?

Please share if you are fortunate enough to have owned any ultra rare gear or if you are looking to acquire something unusual. (I'll share my own list of rare acquisitions and wants in a follow up post. I didn't want to make this initial post too lengthy).

Look forward to hearing your responses, thanks for reading,
Lou

128x128lou_setriodes
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lou_setriodes OP
673 posts
 
I hear you about not remembering what you had for breakfast, as I'm getting to that age too, or maybe I'm there already, as I just realized that I haven't eaten breakfast at all today :)

I'm trying to get a handle on your comments. I've read so many audio magazines in my time and still could never understand all those adjectives to describe sound, so just add "midrange coherance" to the list. Yin/Yang, chocolatey, vanilla-ey, palpable presence, etc - it's all Greek to me...

So to digress, the Tyr 's were not fatigueing, they were fun to listen to, had incredibe bass and were dynamic...so I guess they were more on the dark end of the scale as opposed to being bright or tilted up? How long did you own your Tyr 2's for (approximately)?

I guess for further thoughts on it, I should just re-read the Stereophile review I have stored away, but it's nice to hear first hand from someone who actually owned them.

I recently picked up a really interesting, amazing set of speakers (Paisley Research AE-500). Extremely musical, dynamic and also fun to listen to and I can happily live with them should I never find a mint pr of Tyr 2's. They're also probably a much better speaker than the Rauna's, but the Rauna's are definitely cooler though :)
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lou_setriodes OP
673 posts
 
I agree, the Paisleys are terrific speakers. I think if Celestion or ProAc made them and marketed them at $2-2500, they would sell all day at that price.

I'd be very lucky to come across another pair of Raunas at a reasonable price. If it's meant to be, it will be meant to be. In the meantime, I'm more than happy with the Paisleys.
calloway
870 posts
 
Chalice Audio 'Grail' SET monoblocks..possibly the best SET's anywhere..only 2 pairs sold..
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