Audio deals you bought that seem impossible for the price?


When I look at the Elac Adante center channel I bought open box (I later added the stand) for $1400 total, a couple of years back, I think how is this even possible at anywhere near the price?  The 65 pound speaker (designed by the amazing Andrew Jones) has an aluminum front baffle with waveguide, custom designed (as opposed to off the shelf) concentric drivers, a very sophisticated internal woofer band pass structure and a trapezoidal cabinet.  
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-NJlSV8T4YYE/p_970AC61GB/ELAC-Adante-AC-61-Gloss-Black.html#&gid=1&pid=2

What are your audio purchases that seem impossible, or where the manufacturer clearly lost money?


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The biggest audio deal i ever have witnessed was when i got a pair of electrovoice carlton 4 a speakers for 750 dollars and i can tell you that there is no way you can duplicate their sound short of a concert, truly amazing sound.
Bought a new pair of 1993 Klipschorns, in Germany for DM 3999.99, back then around $2K in Canadian dollars.
To date?

Has to be my current Vandersteen 2CE Sigs. Bought them for $625 in great condition with original boxes. Actually agreed to $600, But the guy was willing to meet me half way between Indianapolis and Cleveland included in the sale price/free of charge. So, no shipping cost. I gave him an extra $25 Just because he was willing to do that. Great guy, great speakers.

I sit and listen to those bad boys, and cannot believe I got that much quality for so little money.
Miller - Moabs are so cheap because there was no design process.  They are just a pile of planks and drivers nailed together.  Nor is there any finish - they look like the homebuild project that they are.

This is the kind of thing we all did when we discovered music and hi-fi as teenagers and had no money.  But most of us got over it when we realised we had no idea of how to build a speaker.
I knew I could not afford the stereo equipment I wanted and in fact the class A amplifier I wanted is in my opinion one of best ever manufactured. I was wanting, looking for a Krell ksa300s which was last made in 2010. The Amplifier weighs in at almost exactly 185lbs not as big as you would think but, there is one reason for its extreme weight. Almost any wire that you think would exist within the chassis was replaced by oxygen free copper bars and has a massive toroidal power transformer. The extreme use of these copper bars insures that frequency signals shoot straight through internal circuitry much the same as you get from the use of expensive high end component and speaker cables. Thing looks pretty bad with 4 electrolytic capacitors as big as automotive oil filters. I've pretty much just reworded an article online from Stereophile so, if anyone is interested in specs, test results just go online and enter ksa300s and you will almost get directly taken to two different detailed articles from Stereophile. I thought I would find it on eBay which I did and had been recapped little less than 3 years earlier and came also with a matching Krc-3 preamplifier and an excellant kas250cd/2 I paid $8200 and according to former owner a company from California offers a clone copy of the class A amplifier at only $25,000.