Vote

Either a big house with a dedicated listening room or a wife that has no problem with the gear in the living room!!! Otherwise an audiophile streaming system with a big hard disk and a palm-size remote allowing to browse music such as in an old record store

c669t

mbl 6010D preamplifier

Simaudio I-7, the WAF is now in affect.

My Ortofon Kontrapunkt B cartridge.

Krell Evolution 600 monoblocks....no substitute for thoroughbred horsepower

I love single-ended triodes, especially of the 2A3 variety. With all of 3 watts in reserve these amps require efficient speakers and the best I have heard so far, that you could actually get your wife to allow in the house, is the Lamhorn 1.8 by RL Acoustique. The combination of 2A3 SET and these speakers makes magic.

Audiomat Arpege

Gradient Revolution. Normally when something deviates dramatically from the average in HIFI it's bad news. This is the one exception I can come up with from my own experience. These are the most wonderfully musical speakers I've heard. What's more: Compared to the competition they're almost laughably cheap.

Rega Mira integrated amp. It just sounds good and is simple to use.

Qualified medical ear de-waxing!

Dynaudio F140: sound technology at an affordable price.

Rotel RCD 1072, $700. I owned this HDCD-capable player for two years, then the upgrade bug hit and I purchased the Linn Majik, $3500. The Linn is a better player, but is it five times better? I'm not so sure. It's by no means a jaw-dropping difference.

The Ayre C-5xe Universal player. Replaced a Musical Fidelity KW SACD with the Ayre. Best integrated source I have yet to come across. Honorable mention to the VPI Scout 'table, Bryston 3B SST, and the Mcintosh C2200 preamp. The functionality of the preamp is astounding as well as the sound. The VPI products speak for themselves and the 3B continues to this day to be the best sounding amp in the Bryston lineup reagrdless of power. Cables? Cardas.

The Power Amp. My first dabble with good gear was a Hafler 9290 amp and it made my cheap speakers sound glorious.

Don Allen's 10/801A amp. I have heard most of the recommended amps in Stereophile's list and none have the magic Don's amps have.

AKG 701. With them, I can really hear what the rest of my system sounds like, minus the room.

Squeezebox 3. Excellent source for my music collection and for internet radio. Through my Theta DAC it sounds identical to my expensive CD transport. The wave of the future.

Alesis Masterlink CD Burner - quality High End CD recorder - I can record hours of my favorite Jazz station and burn any song I would like onto a CD or make compilations of my favorite tunes off of purchased CD's to play in my cars. If I wasn't such a purist, I could easily play the compilations on my kW CD player at home.

Big screen television....everything starts with the picture....The technology in these new displays is astounding. After that go crazy with the sound.