Personally I wouldn't touch 'em with a barge pole.... You know all those fancy devices for audio use? that are much better than anything available today but made from pure unobtainium? and which I keep banging on about and no one gives a toss but me? Well they will be full of 'em. Add potted modules for real fun.
The extra value people assign to something based not on what is inside but purely on what it says on the name badge really pisses me off personally as well but that's fairly irrelevant (ie take two top quality identical watches and add the word "Rolex" to one and it's worth £10k apparently.. whilst the other identical one with an unknown brand on it is worth say £200) Ahhhh... rant over... that's better
Arkless Electronics-Engineered to be better. Tel. 01670 530674 (after 1pm)
Modded Thorens TD150, Audio Technica AT-1005 MkII, Technics EPC-300MC, Arkless Hybrid MC phono stage, Arkless passive pre, Arkless 50WPC Class A SS power amp, (or) Arkless modded Leak Stereo 20, Modded Kef Reference 105/3's
ReVox PR99, Studer B62, Ferrograph Series 7, Tandberg TCD440, Hitachi FT-5500MkI, also FT-5500MkII
Digital: Yamaha CDR-HD1500 (Digital Swiss army knife-CD recorder, player, hard drive, DAC and ADC in one), PC files via 24/96 sound card and SPDIF, modded Philips CD850, modded Philips CD104, modded DPA Little Bit DAC. Sennheiser HD580 cans with Arkless Headphone amp.
Cables- free interconnects that come with CD players, mains leads from B&Q, dead kettles etc, extension leads from Tesco