The Component That Got Away: Audiophile Edition

It was pre-pandemic and I got an unexpected call from audiophile icon Dan D’Agostino, the founder of Krell and the impresario behind his namesake brand of uber-high-performance audiophile gear. He wanted to know if I still owned my 1997 Porsche 911 Twin Turbo. Sadly, I didn’t not. He asked me what I paid for it when I bought it, as we have the kind of friendship that allows such a specific financial question. I quickly retorted that I bought it used as the third owner for $65,000, and that I sold it for $85,000 a few years later. I was a little bit proud of making a profit from owning a car that once retailed for about $110,000, was sold in limited numbers, and was the ultimate example of a Porsche 911 in the air-cooled era. Dan then blew me away when he said, “They sell for $500,000 now.” What? Hunh? I ended the call, and started looking at used prices on a 1997 Porsche 911 Twin Turbo, and he wasn’t wrong. I was feeling a recession coming when I sold this super car and I simply didn’t need a second car, I thought. I thought wrong. 

The audio and automotive categories have never been more intertwined since Bose bought legendary audiophile brands McIntosh and Sonus faber in late 2024. The idea that an exotic car could increase many times in value was mind-blowing, and one that I wish I could have seen coming, as that 911 would have never left my garage. The same concept can be applied to audiophile systems and components. Perhaps even more often than their cars, audiophiles swap out and upgrade their beloved stereo components. These flips are a big part of the hobby, and a lot of the fun of owning a kickass stereo system. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have the same outcome when you sell a product that might warrant inclusion in your “permanent collection” of gear. Don’t worry, because it happens to even the most experienced audiophiles at some point along the way. 

The Cello Audio Palette

There is no one audiophile component that represents the pinnacle of career selling stereo equipment more than the Cello Audio Palette. Cello was Mark Levinson’s follow-up company to his namesake brand that he lost control of in the early 1980s. Mark commissioned designer Dick Burwin to make a mastering-grade “program equalizer” that was second to none in terms of its performance at the time of its product launch, also in the mid-1980s. This analog EQ could be used “off-label” as a one-source preamp, but normally was paired with a card-based stereo preamp from Cello, called the Audio Suite. The Cello Audio Suite was way ahead of the curve in its modular (fully analog) design, as you could have a card for balanced inputs, unbalanced inputs, a phonostage, and more. If Cello didn’t have a stock card for what you needed, they would make you one specifically to your design needs. The strongest tie-in between the Cello Audio Palette and the Cello Audio Suite was that it shared a power supply, which by today’s standards seems like a less-than-optimal standard, but it worked at the time. 

What makes the Cello Audio Palette so rare is exactly what makes Enzo-era Ferraris so pricey at auction – which is scarcity. There couldn’t have been more than a few hundred Cello Audio Palettes ever made for worldwide consumption. The fact that the Cello Audio Palette and the Cello Audio Suite power up from the same power supply means that they are often sold together as a pair and, even back in the day, these components were quite expensive. That means finding a Cello Audio Palette without the accompanying reference preamp is not quite as likely. A mid-1990s retail price on a Cello Audio Palette was over $25,000. That didn’t stop recording studios and mastering labs from buying them then, as well as seeking them out now as an exotic and vintage component. Consider a Cello Audio Palette to be the EQ version of a studio that has a collection of vintage microphones from the likes of companies like Neumann.

I’ve never technically owned a Cello Audio Palette, but I sure as hell sold them and worked every day with them before I left Cello Music and Film Los Angeles while a junior at music school to start AVRev.com with an $11,000 commission and barely half a clue what I was doing. Starting a stereo magazine with a black-and-white Apple MacBook 520B laptop, complete with a 9600-baud dial-up modem, was pretty foolish in retrospect. So was not buying a Cello Audio Palette before I left working for Cello, as they would have given me an insanely good price on such a high-end audio component. Would I have been smart enough to keep such a sought-after audiophile component? Realistically, that would be a no. Somewhere in the future, I would have I needed money, and I would have likely sold the Audio Palette, but that doesn’t change me still wanting one to this day. I recently found a used Cello Audio Palette and Audio Suite on eBay.com for over $30,000, which is way, way, way out of my budget, but I did love the idea that I could find one at any price at this late date. Perhaps the idea of dreaming of owning one of these sought-after equalizers is enough? More times than not, it feels that way, but it doesn’t keep me from looking around from time to time. 

Wilson Audio WATT Puppy 5.1s Finished in Audi Pearl White

Before I got to Cello, I was pretty adept at selling Wilson Audio speakers from my time working at the Beverly Hills, California-based audiophile retailer Christopher Hansen Ltd. That relationship remained strong through my time working for Cello during college and, when I started AVRev.com in 1996, Wilson was an early client and supporter, just like Harman’s Mark Levinson brand, DTS, and Transparent Audio. I simply would have never made it if it weren’t for the support of these brands in the early stages of online publishing back in the late 1990s.

If I have counted correctly, I believe that I have owned five pairs of Wilson Audio speakers over the years, and loved every pair. I did “crash the family car” once in my apartment that was located right next to where The Price is Right is filmed at CBS’s Television City in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles. The speakers were Wilson CUBS, which are tall and stand-mounted (but not secured). One actually fell off of one of the very solid, lead-shot-filled speaker stands and was destroyed. I will never forget calling Wilson to tell them that I ruined one of their speakers, as I was sick to my stomach over the situation. 

Wilson couldn’t have been cooler about this embarrassing situation, and they in fact sent me a harder-to-trip- over set of speakers, in the form of Wilson WATT Puppy 5s, finished in Audi Pearl White paint. Today, most high-end audiophile speaker companies can paint their speakers with automotive colors (they legally can’t market those colors specifically as “Audi Pearl White” or “Lamborghini Fly Yellow,” but they know what buttons to press on the paint computer to make just that exact color, if you so desire it). The problem with the Pearl White finish is that it is a process that takes no less than six weeks to complete. The depth of the finish is breathtaking to look at. I’ve owned a lot of fancy speakers since then, including a number of white speakers, but none had the look of these Wilson WATT Puppys. Sheryl Wilson, David Wilson’s wife, once called me and politely asked me to perhaps not to request any more speakers in this finish, as they were so difficult and time-consuming to make that I was causing an issue for them. I of course obliged, but that doesn’t make me want a pair of modern Wilsons in that classic finish any less. The local audiophile who bought these speakers from me over 25 years ago has reached out over the years, and he still owns my Pearl White WATT Puppy loudspeakers and loves them more now than when he first purchased them from me. I am happy to know that the speakers found a great home, but I wouldn’t mind having them (or a modern version of them) back. 

THIEL CS1.5 Speakers in Bird’s Eye Maple

Marylou Longo was like a second mother to me growing up in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. Her husband, Ken, was the biggest audiophile of all of our dads, and he was (and still is) the reason why I want to own a Nakamichi Dragon cassette player to this day. I never owned a Nakamichi Dragon tape deck, but Mr. Longo did, and we sure used every one of the various buttons on said tape deck in hopes of recording copies of our beloved Compact Discs into a more car-friendly cassette tape format, which was very of the era. 

Marylou isn’t with us anymore but, as a successful real estate agent in her day, she used to pontificate to us that we should never sell a piece of real estate. That is really good philosophical advice, but it is very hard to follow in the real world. Her point to me was not to sell my rock and roll-approved, 800-square-foot condo that I bought for a mere $229,000 directly above the original Spago and the legendary Tower Records location on The Sunset Strip. She said “never sell your real estate,” but how exactly was I supposed to afford a standalone house in West Los Angeles without selling my condo first and using the equity for my next downpayment – which is exactly what I did. Today, that tiny-ass, deluxe apartment in the sky with a great view in a building that once was the home to Billy Idol, Axl Rose, Lenny Kravitz and my neighbor Neil Sedaka, is worth over $1,000,000. Units like the one that I owned rent for $8,500 per month or more. Oof …  

The audiophile version of my condo was my first real pair of audiophile loudspeakers, which were small but sexy THIEL CS 1.5s. These diminutive loudspeakers were finished in Bird’s Eye Maple by Jim Thiel’s brother, who I believe today still deals in exotic woods from Vermont, specifically for Martin Guitars. These THIEL speakers are anything but modern today, as Jim’s designs were brutally hard to drive. To this day, there are fans of his time-aligned speakers, but man did they suck a good audiophile amp dry. One might argue that the THIEL CS5i speakers that we sold at Christopher Hansen Ltd. were the toughest speakers that I’ve ever tried to drive. The store sold them to Janet Jackson, Stevie Ray Vaughn and, most importantly, Andrew Dice Clay, but they also needed really big high-current power amps to make any respectable sound. 

Ultimately, for the same reason that I would sell my West Hollywood condo, I would sell these THIEL speakers. Basically, I was young and I needed the money – in this case for bigger and more expensive loudspeakers. The THIEL CS1.5s weren’t the greatest speakers that I’ve ever owned (or reviewed), but they were like that framed “first dollar” that goes on the wall at your local dry cleaner. These THEIL floorstanding speakers were the audiophile version of that concept, and I would have love to have kept them around if I could have pulled it off. 

Embrace the Journey and Don’t Live Too Much in the Audiophile Past

It is easy for me to tell you to not live in the audiophile past as I tell you all about the past products that I’ve owned (or should have owned) that I badly miss. These components have special significance and were key parts of my journey, from an NAD receiver, a Nakamichi CD changer and some Polk floorstanding speakers when I was 14 to having owned some of the finest audiophile, home theater and smart-home equipment the world knows. I never forget just how lucky I have been to be able to own and/or experience so much killer audiophile gear in my life so far. It has been a really fun trip. 

Sometimes, I catch myself pining for the past, but when we look to the present or even the near future, my excitement for getting a new Audio Research stereo preamp or a BlueSound Node ICON is stronger than my interest in going back to the past. Noted sports psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella talks about playing golf “in the now,” in that there’s little that you can do to make the putt that you missed three holes ago. There’s also little that you can do about that really tough Par 5 coming up, either. The shot that you have in front of you is the one that is most relevant. That is good advice for audiophiles, too, in that the most important or relevant decision that you will make about your system is likely the next one. Take time to enjoy the research part of the process, including reading sites like FutureAudiophile.com and any number of other ones. Relish in the process of going out to experience a component. Resist the urge to tip the UPS driver when she arrives carrying something exciting like a new DAC or preamp from Crutchfield, because these auditions are worth savoring and enjoying. Even after you make a decision to invest in a component, spending the time to listen to your music collection all over again is a sign that you’ve really made a smart decision for you and your audiophile system. The past is the past. We will all have components that we remember fondly, but the process of finding new ones will always be the driving force behind the passion in the audiophile hobby.

What is your audiophile component “that got away” from your stereo system? When did you buy it? When (and why) did you sell it? Would you buy it back at market prices today, or do you think, in modern times, said component might not perform up to the standards of modern audiophile gear? We love to hear from you. Post your comments below.