[Feature]The Super-High-Value Products I’d Buy Today (SoundStage, 2012. 10)

Last month I wrote about the super products that I’d buy without hesitation. Those wallet-busting components ranged from $15,000 to $165,000 USD -- not chump change to anyone I know. But put them in your listening room and you’ll be rewarded with the best sound that money can presently buy. But even when their prices are set aside, they aren’t the most practical audio components. Each Magico Q7 loudspeaker weighs 750 pounds, and the Gryphon Mephisto amplifier isn’t exactly light at 250 pounds.

Thank goodness you can get great sound without having to spend huge sums of money and/or housing a multi-ton system.

So assuming that cost is an object -- as it is for most of us -- here are some of the products I’d buy today. It might surprise you to see just how little compromise you need to make in high-value, high-end audio gear. These products aren’t necessarily cheap, but each offers huge value within its product genre; and their prices fall below -- sometimes far below -- those listed in last month’s column.

Calyx Audio Femto DAC: Doug also wrote about the Calyx Audio Femto DAC, which I call the $20,000 DAC you can buy for $6850. The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s built as if it came from Jeff Nelson at Boulder Amplifiers. Even the modules on the circuit boards, machined from aluminum and engraved, are Boulder-like. This 40-pound beauty houses some impressive design work, including clocking technology borrowed from "military and aerospace GPS technology." And it produces a sound that is to die for. Doug summed up his review by stating that the Femto was "the best-sounding (and best-looking) DAC I’ve ever heard." 

. . . Jeff Fritz
jeff@soundstagenetwork.com

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