What Was The Best Audio Deal You Ever Made?

[blooeyz]

hi all;
oh, last year, at the GW bins, i found an intact Akai 4 channel reel deck GX-280D-SS....three fixed heads, not moving like the 280-d. with auto reverse in 2 ch, and great specs....All it needed was the reel table heights reset and heads aligned....and a REAL cleaning! oh, they took me for $8.00 for that deck....today it works wonderful...minus one meter light out...its an impressive looking machine!

 

[vintaggeman]

free klipsch quartets ,yamaha cr-1020 receiver and technics sl-1200 mkll tt !

 

[cubby01]

Until my next "best deal" comes along I think it's a pair of Yamaha NS1000M I recently picked up for $60 at a thrift. The real amazing part is I walked right by them two days earlier and thought to myself I don't need another set of speakers. I was way wrong. I went back figuring they would be gone but they were still there. Must be karma

 

[tubeboob]

Great Finds on the cheap

1. Wharfedale W-30's mint condition for $1.00 at a garage sale.
2. JVC QL-F4 turntable with new Pickering XSV 3000 and D3000 needle for $20.00 from Estate Sale
3. Marantz Legacy 4272 CD Player in gold mint NOS for $18.00
4. Polk RTA 11T towers mint for $100.00 delivered from boss's son
5. Akai GX912 Cassette Player (needed door fix) $18.00 off the bay
6. Akai GXC 709D Cassette Player $20.00 in absolutely mint cosmetic condition from Estate Sale

That's why I'm always looking . . . one day I'll find it!!! ALL OF IT!!!

 

[Stalmer]

Best "steal":
Crown D-75 amp (near mint condition - used occasionally in a corporate meeting room)

$35.00 - a "silent auction". And this was in 1996!

What a great headphone amp!

 

[pharoah]

i guess the best deal i ever got was a klipsch sw10 for free.recently anyway other deals ive had are a sansui 9090db for 35$.that sansui was only around 10 years old when i had it.had a nice kenwood reciever i got for 20$ that was the first real stereo i ever had.a penny fell into the kenwood,and killed it.the sansui i later traded for a yamaha cr-3020 i think it was.

 

[SX1050AU717]

Sony es

this is my best deal.

SONY ST-S730ES 25.00
SONY TA-E100ESD 25.00 NEEDS REPAIR
SONY TA-N77ES 25.00 NEEDS METER LAMPS
CERWIN VEGA D9 25.00 NEEDS NEW SURRONDS

PICKED THIS UP YESTERDAY AT A YARD SALE

BRYAN

 

[carl pants]

A friend who worked at a thrift store gave me a Kenwood KA-601. The stuff he came across that never made it to the sales floor.....

 

[shadwag]

shoulda woulda coulda

i must be hitting the wrong junk stores. you guys have some great finds.

i once saw an adcom gfa-555 for 50 bucks in a thrift store but i was a seriously broke college student and couldn't scratch up the cash for it till payday. i only wanted it to turn a quick profit on ebay. when i went back it was gone. :tears:

 

[xpert54]

Best deal ever?? Sansui AU 111 for helping clean out a rent house. Seems the previous tennet left it there. This was in 1972. That was my main amp until 1984.

 

[beans]

I don't know that I've ever made a really good deal unless it was the one I made earlier this week: Fisher FM-9025 AM/FM tuner for $20 at a pawn shop. I spotted it there last week then did an AK search on it and saw where AK member gyusher had great things to say about it. He also said he's buying up just about every one he sees. I'm using mine in place of my MR78 while it is being restored... the Fisher doesn't pull in the stations as well, but for $20 not bad.

 

[bluesky]

Best audio deal? I got a pair of Mint (perfect conditon) Sansui AS-100s (acoustic suspension - 1970) at the Goodwill for $9.98! And they sound simply remarkably fantastic!

Great base with exceptional highs. They really sound different. I love the sound these little speakers have. What a design! You can listen to them all day and night long and they are never tiring whats-so-ever. I love em. You can play them at low volumn and they sound great, and as soon as you give em some power, man, they wake right up!

It just makes me wonder how mint AS-300s sound. Got my eyes open for a pair. Only seen one pair on eBay in 2 years but they were alittle beat up.

 

[w1jim]

Not the best deal but a pretty damn good deal was a Cambridge Soundworks "Centerstage" center channel (home theater) speaker that I picked up at a local thrift store.
Original retail was like $350 but they had it for $7.99. When I went top the register the cashier said that today was senior citizens discount day (I'm 53; close but no cigar) and how old was I. Sarcastically, I said "95"; close enough was the reply. Total cost was $6.20.
I had the intention of flipping this on the bay but when I took it home and tested it I decided, "nope, this is a keeper". And it matches my front channel $37 pair of B&W DM-560s that I replaced the tweeters (had nasty metal dome tweets) on and upgraded the crossover.

Buy low, sell high - now it's buy low and accumulate.
JimB

 

[bluesky]

Isn't it amazing on some of the stereo deals on used gear out there, and people don't want it!!! Guess it looks old style or something. Guess they got to have the new stuff, much to our appreciation! Maybe they just don't listen to music. Wish I could run into a 'super amp' on the cheap. It's out there, just haven't found it yet!

I'm happy, totally stoked really, with my $9.98 Salvation Army 1970 Sansui AS-100s. I was like you, I wasn't expecting much, I was just going to use them in my garage, if they worked. That was my only expectation. Then I plugged them in my living room stereo system to see if they worked and immediately knew that they were living room keepers, no doubt about it, just got super lucky! No garage for these puppies! Just cleaned em up and polished the mint cabinets and the rest is history. Even the cloth grills are mint! If they were my 'only' speakers, I'd be a happy camper with em. That's how much I love the sound. In fact, half the time (or more) all I play is them over my other bigger speakers. All they have is a 10" woofer and a 3 inch dome tweeter. The tweeter is controlled with a dial on the crossover (one cap) and honest to god, I just can't believe the soundstage, the sensitivity of the tweet, and great bass too, out of a 10 woofer. Go Figure! They sound great, and very 'musical'!

It's amazing on some of the used stereo deals out there! Just got to keep your eyes open and get lucky.

Why in the world anyone would get rid of these speakers is beyond me, they sure don't listen to music, but that's ok, I got em now, it's most appreciated, and I use em all the time!!

And they were just sitting on the floor at the local goodwill store on the corner. Someone even wrote $9.98 in chauk on the tops, which cleaned right off!

Now, where is that super amp???? :>)

Thanks for letting me share this little story with you!!

 

[Splatter Pak]

It would have to be my Fisher 104 speakers, with new woofers, new midranges, new tweeters, new crossovers. The only original parts are the cabinets, terminals, and boxes. They belonged to my best friend, and he gave them to me when he moved to Russia. They are so good, I can tell which amp I am using. :yes:

Splat

 

[Styx_II]

It's a 2 part scenario.

1st part...picked out a set of Bose 901 Series VI w/stands for $35 in mint condition.

2nd part...traded them for a pair of Klispch RF-3's.

 

[jean lafite]

i've had a few. many pairs of klh 6, 17, 5, 24 between $5 and $20 a pair, nobody seems to want them. i also got a marantz 2270 for 18.99 at the goodwill, a harmon kardon stereo festival am/fm receiver for $11 and a thorens 124 for $200, but i think the all time best has to be a pilot 602 receiver for $5. the thing works like a charm. i don't know what was going on at that garage sale because they were charging such big prices for (literally) garbage that i almost didn't bother asking them how much they wanted for it. what a bunch of maroons.

 

[sheltie dave]

The best audio deal I ever made was to sell a Scott tube integrated amp to a retired friend for cheap, cheap. He used and enjoyed it every day for close to two years until his recent passing. He loved it immensely, and it made me smile every time I saw him post on different forums.

Sometimes the best deal is one that gives someone else happiness, rather than number one :thmbsp:

 

[cmb3366]

Its a two-way tie for me.

I paid $70 for my McIntosh 2100 on CL: $250 for it paired with a Crown SL-2, I later flipped the Crown for $180 on CL

My Klipsch Legends are my other favorite deal. I had been looking for them for the better part of a year (and I was willing to pay full going price) and I finally gave up when nothing turned up withing a 4 hour drive, so I had my JBL L100T3's rebuilt. About 3 weekends ago, a pair turns up on CL, $200 . The best part was when I got there, the seller revealed that he also had the boxes, if I wanted them. They are in damn near perfect condition, and sound amazing, they throw everybit as good a soundstage as I had imagined.

 

[mpholland]

Kind of a tossup between a few deals. Got a Radio Craftsmen C500 with original Genalex KT66's, three 618A Western Electric mics, Gott xover, several other mics and transformers, some test equipment and a vintage yellow NEHI soda crate at an estate sale for 20 bucks. Got a Heathkit W5-M, also with original Genalex KT66's for 39 bucks at a 2nd hand store. Probably the best was a shelf full of Western Electric input and output transformers plus many other vintage parts for 45 dollars. Sold about a dozen of the transformers for 3100 dollars and bought the wife a car. Still tease her about that one when she has issues with my audio collection.