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RE: Help me pick SET monoblocks

The thing is you should compare new prices to new prices (and I mean new price to new price). Comparing a $10k amp that is so great that 10 years later you can buy it for $1500 should tell you that it wasn't all that good to start with. I can sell my 14 year old OTO for $600 more than I paid for it in 2003. I know it doesn't occur to you that the reason for that is that people actually WANT OTO amps and the fact that they can sell the SAME amp for 20+ years means that if it was good in 1995 it should still be good in 2017. Unlike most other stuff that is good for a four year review cycle and then dropped (killing all resale value). It's also why SS is almost always worthless on the second hand market. Buying some amp using some trashy torroid transformer design is a waste.

I tend to agree with you on some AN gear - not everything they make is "the best" whatever that means. There are still cost considerations to make and Andy Whittle in the video above points that out. But the heart is in the right place and the important bits are there in a complete level Zero system.

I myself preferred going with the 0.1x DAC ($1450) than the DAC 1x($1990) or 2.1xDAC ($3200). Both are better - but the "leap" better DAC in my opinion is the DAC 3.1x Balanced at $7600.

How about amps? The P1SE is $2900 and the P2SE is $3,500. I find them slightly high because Empress Monoblocks which to me sound quite vastly better starts at $5700 - for 2 monoblocks! But they'll retain their value.

I don't think the prices are particularly high - the M1 phono preamp (which provides a damn good phono stage) is $2,200 ($1,800 for a Line version). The M2 Line is only $3,000. These are hardly outlandish prices. You can spend significantly more on the likes of a Prima Luna, Rogue Audio, Line Magnetic, Mei Xing, Ming Da, and you're coming out behind on Sound Quality and You REALLY lose on the net cost side.

Why? unlike the Chinese - you can sell your M2 in 10 years for what you paid. So when you start talking about price talk about the net price - the AN costs $0 (inflation only) for 10 years versus any of these Chinese amps that in ten years you might sell for 1/4 if you're lucky (heck even the Ayon you noted gets you at best 25% of what you paid). So $3k Chinese amp you might sell for $500-$1,000. Your cost is $2,000 to $2500 versus $0 for the Audio Note.

So which costs more?

I have owned the AN K/Spe, J/Spe, TT2/Arm3/IQ3, AN E Lexus Hemp. All of these products I sold and got my money back on or sold for more than I paid. AN is looking pretty darn affordable - why the hell do you think I like it so much - I am a cheap ass MOFO and I like free. And Sound Quality trumps but only if we compare NET cost. If one amp A is $8k and is only worth $1,500 after 10 years you paid $6,500. If you could buy a $20k amp that has vastly better parts and sounds better for $20k keep it 10 years and you sell it for $13,500 - you still paid the NET cost of $6,500 but for ten years you got a much better sounding amplifier - then it is pretty clear that you and anyone else should buy amplifier B over amplifier A. Better amp, better quality, better sound, same overall cost to you. (opportunity cost aside).

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