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An original, used Oracle Delphi turntable with arm and cartridge for $800, back in 1997. The only items I bought for less were my original system in high school, consisting of an Akai receiver and Fisher speakers for $325 in 1981. I bought them with money earned scrubbing pots at a local restaurant. All three were perfect at the time and were enjoyed for many years. It seemed like a fortune at the time. Today, my speaker cable costs more than I ever imagined spending on an entire system. How times have changed!

A $40 Tripath-based amp purchased off e.Bay. It's marked "Sure Electronics," and the unit can still be found (by way of an e.Bay store) under that name, though the price is up to $54. Anyway, a clear, clean amp that I can listen to by the hour.

Free—read the manual closely for hidden extras like Dolby Pro Logic ON switch. Result: loads of old CDs have surround-sound encoded in the analog signal and I am having hours of fun uncovering new versions of music I thought I knew already in my collection.

A buyout on Sonus Faber 5" woofers, planar tweeters, a set of small birch ply cabs, and a rane active crossover beat out my B&Ws x10. $300 vs $4k? CheapestT audio thrill ever was making speakers out of laundry detergent dispensers and Aiwa drivers when I was 12. I wired it and placed the drivers so as to produce a truly awesome soundstage. Accurate? No. Soundstage to rival nice coaxials? Yes.

I purchased a 12-band Technics graphic equalizer in 1983 for $89. It made a world of difference in sound quality.

The $99 I spent on my NuForce uDAC is the best hundred bucks I've ever spent on audio gear. The uDAC, combined with lossless files opened a whole new world to me.

A nice pair of Dynaco A-25 speakers at a flea market for $5.

The deluxe Monoprice.com Toslink cable is a wonderful buy. I use it from an Airport Express to my DAC and it works great and looks amazing.

I spent $475 on a used Genesis Digital Lens in mint condition. Best thing I ever purchased and the cheapest.

In high school, I bought a hand-me-down AR turntable that came with an ancient Shure cartridge. I replaced it with a $40 Grado F-series and got one step closer to nirvana.

Koss Pro35A headphones. They were less than $20 on sale. Their sound is accurate and well-balanced. Great for portable use.

Restored my grandparents' 1930s radio. Tube amplified.

Toss-up between Cambridge DacMagic (£227) and the Stereolab XV-Ultra coax digital cable (£350ish for 1.5m). I bought the Cambridge to access the Proms webcasts from the MacBook, then discovered the joys of 24/96 downloads. The old Krell 300cd was a little behind even lossless (16/44.1) downloads, so I bought the XV-Ultra to connect it to the DacMagic... wow! A new CD player for under £600! I've got beautiful music coming out of my ears, and the last week of the Proms has the BBC running them at a new rate of 320kbps AAC, which is very listenable indeed, and well ahead of compressed FM. All from a "budget" DAC and a truly remarkable cable upgrade.

I just scored a pair of PSB Alpha B speakers through craigslist. They're absolutely mint and cost only $100! I'd buy a six-pack for Christmas presents if I could find more at that price.

Headphones. I bought a pair of Sony MVDR600s for $5 when Video Concepts went out of business. They replaced an ancient pair of Sennheiser HD424s that I paid $25 for. I bought my daughter a pair of Bose earbuds so I could get her Bose noise-canceling full-coverage headphones. Those three headphones cover a span of about 32 years. Now if I could only get a deal on some newer Sennheisers or Grados.

$28 on a QED Qunex interconnect. Just the tonic my system needed.

At work, they were throwing out a Technics SL1200mkII. Still works brilliantly.

Free LPs people have given away as they discarded them, sometimes in boxes on corners. Found my original copy of the White Album this way!

$100 Vizio soundbar

I love my lamp cord(s).

150 on a used, serviced Quad 405 MK1 power amp, partnered with a £150 used AVI S2000MP preamp. Both bargain basement and both worked very well.

$300—Magnepan MG 1.3s.

AR turntable ($78 new) & Stanton 681 cartridge (?—expensive at the time), all Dynaco electronics, and A25 speakers. In 1968—wonderful music!

AR9 speakers. $2500.

$399 for the Winsome Labs Mouse amplifier. One of the best values in the hi-fi world.

My used Mcintosh MA6100, just 400 bones.

Brand-new Ortofon OM 10 Super cartridge. $45.

Denon DL 110. Paid $139 + postage. Sounds wonderful! Better than any MM I have ever heard. In fact, the best cartridge I have owned, although I have paid a lot more before and got a lot less. It will have to do until I can afford that Koetsu!

Grado SR80 headphones

Playstation 1001 and modifications. Little bugger sounded like music and the sense of "air" was due to the lack of fuss over it all.