I have an obscene amount of recording equipment. I have been collecting stuff for 20 plus years and I was able to retain most of the equipment from KFRS, my commercial studio, when I finally retired at age 48. There are sooo many purchases I have made that I'm very happy with it's hard to decide which one is the best.

I think the one that stands out the most in recent history is the purchase of a Silence Case for my computer from Elias Reitz/Bechtold, in Oakland CA. I just didn't realize how much racket the computer was really making and how much it interfered with my work. I now can do much longer sessions due to less noise fatigue. If you are experiencing a lot of noise in your work environment from the fans in your computer this is the way to go.

Silence Cases come supplied with castors for ease of movement. The insides of the cases are lined with a thin layer of foam to help insulate them and to aid in dissipating noise. There is a variety of finishes to choose from. I was able to get the case in a finish that exactly matched the oak racks I already have. Cool! Each case is custom built to customer order. This allows for special configurations. The finish and fit of these cases is absolutely first class. A set of “quiet” fans, one for air intake and one for exhaust, are placed in a housing mounted to the back door of the case. A foam air filter and a power supply transformer with a switch to step up the fan speed in four graduations are provided. Even at high speed the sound emitted from the case is almost unnoticeable. A cable pass hole is placed in the side of the case. There is a rubber flap arraignment that allows the cables to pass through but still retain a noise seal.

Now when I fire up the computer and close the front door of the case it is silent in the room. Elias sure named these box's correctly. I am looking forward to the next time I need to record vocals. I used to dread cutting vox tracks as I had to deal with tricky gates and other means to reduce the noise to an acceptable level. Not any more! :D

As a Moderator here, SPAM rules and propriety prevent me from posting a link to Elias but if anyone is interested in these cases I am sure you can find him through a web search or if you wish you may send me a Private Message with your EMAIL address and I will forward it to Elias. Fats
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Tannoy, Dynaudio, Blue Sky, JBL, Earthworks, Westlake, NS 10's , Genelec, Hafler, KRK, and PMC
Those are good. …………………….. Pick one.
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I love my Really Nice Compressor from FMR audio. The thing is completely invisible. You can do 25:1 if you want to without artifacts. And, it's only $175!

I will never regret going a bit over my budget last year when i was piecing together the studio..i bought a soundcraft ghost instead of a mackie or a tascam(though i do like those)or an allen/heath or what-not console...i still havent hooked up the midi based automation yet but the sonic performance to this point has been awfully good...i took bill's advice in tech-talk and put a variac on the power supply for it and am now realizing that kind of warmth throughout that comes from the components working at a high level..i can drive it hard and it retains clarity even @+12 levels hitting the recorder...kinda like an old neve or old quad-eight...not THAT good but the way it responds is similar...plus the eq works way way better and the mic pres are buttery now......

I would have to say my best purchasing decision was my Yamaha NS10M monitors. I just happened to be in Mars one day and they had a brand new pair and they were very reasonable. I had no idea they had stopped making them. I probably have one of the last ones made.

My best purchase was my chair. It is very comfortable dosn't squeek and dose tilt back thing when I expell a deep breath & realize I am goin to be here a while.

hehe...who needs chairs...I just stack the factory boxes of all my gear and sit on them..

Some good responses so far. I want that link Fats..(just ordered a new G4 think I am gonna need it)

I need to check out one of those RNC compressors. Still working on mic pres though.
Robert

I heard from Elias today and it's good news. He is going to be advertising here at RO, so very soon there will be a banner posted with the link information. In the meantime just send me a Private Message with your email address and I will forward it to Elias and also send the link to you.. Cheers, Fats
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Tannoy, Dynaudio, Blue Sky, JBL, Earthworks, Westlake, NS 10's :D , Genelec, Hafler, KRK, and PMC
Those are good. …………………….. Pick one.
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1. UA-610 mic pre. This thing sounds absolutely fantastic especially on DI bass.

2. F. Alton Everest's Master Mandbook of Acoustics. If you are setting up a studio for yourself you must read this book. Even if you don't do anything with the information or build any of the projects, you will understand why your room sounds like it does.

Ibanez RG550EX. Completely changed the way and my attitude to music and prompted the purchase of a complete home studio system. (but this is probably the wrong forum as its a guitar!!!)

Other than that - a behringer ultrapatch pro patchbay - who would of thought a 1u strip of metal costing just 40 quid could be so useful?

Kensington Expert Pro wireless mouse. Lots of extra programable buttons on it so I can use it to control my DAW and do super fast edits. I rarely need to touch my keyboard anymore and the large trackball makes moving knobs and faders a pleasure when fine tuning. Price is high (about 100.00) but seems to be worth it so far. I've only had it a week but every day I discover something new that lets me work faster. The literature says that the 6 buttons on the top are for programming in web sites but the reality is that you can program macros for them to do practically anything. I use them to zoom in and out and to grab any tools I need at the click of a button.

This is a nice one: Lately, getting the parts for my ANUS-DAW, building it and configure it the "Opus-way" with all the tweaks. Such a great machine! That one with my RME-Hammerfall soundcard and Alesis AI-3 converter is just a great rockin' DAW.
All this for ~2000 USD. Otherwise, I'm still in love with my Ibanez Artist, bought over 20 years ago. And all my vintage effects( EH, MXR, Maestro, Fulltone)

Can I list a few of my best purchases?

1. My 1952 Kay Bass. No plywood bass is supposed to sound this good. I've toured the world and played many basses. For the type of music I play (Rockabilly, more or less period sounding) nothing has compared.

2. RCA 77dx - Man I have found so many uses for this thing! It NEVER sounds bad on something

3. Chilton mixer. Ex BBC, all discrete transformer balaned pre's. i dont know how it compares to big names, but I do know that is sounds better than both my mackie (now PA use only), A&H (headphones mixes now) and Soundcraft (sold). It is probably the one piece I have bought where I could hear a noticable difference in my quality of work.

My best was also an RNC. Considering it replaced an Alesis 3630 that's pretty much a no brainer.

My ECM 8000's would be a very close second.

I may be showing my ass here on this one but I don't get it when people slam the Alesis 3630 comp. They are not the best comp in the world but they certainly aren't any worse than any of the other inexpensive compressors available. I have used these things many times and when set up correctly, with the inputs switched to the correct settings and proper gain structure, they have worked fine. They don't impart any kind of a quality signature color or sound but if you don't try to squish the crud out of everything with them they function well IMO. The gates are worthless but I suspect that has more to do with them being placed after the compressor in the signal chain than anything else. I have heard opinions stating the 3630 degrades the audio but I'm sorry I don't hear that. At least not to the point where it is any more degrading than any other piece of cheap audio equipment. No worse than any cheap mixer, (Mackie, Behringer, Studiomaster, Allen Heath, Soundcraft, etc.) Sure it's not a Manley, Avalon or a UREI but what does one expect for $160?
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Tannoy, Dynaudio, Blue Sky, JBL, Earthworks, Westlake, NS 10's :D , Genelec, Hafler, KRK, and PMC
Those are good. …………………….. Pick one.
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Sytek 4 channel pre with 2 channels jfet, and my studio projects T3 - Butter!

Here's another one: Sennheiser HD202's for an inexpensive sealed tracking headphone to give to artists... loud, and hardly any leakage for under $30, albeit a little 'honky' in the mids. If you're really on a budget, you can find earbuds for less than $5 that have a reasonable sound and zero leakage.

Actually Cedar, I'm not so much slamming the 3630 as I am praising the RNC. I also agree that the 3630 can be usable for some things, but considering I bought my 3630 for $200 way back when, and considering the cost and performance of the RNC, well, the topic was about best purchase decisions and the RNC was a significant upgrade for my little studio over the 3630, especially on vocal tracks.

Maybe we should start a thread on equipment we still use that everyone loves to slam. In addition to the 3630, you could add the AKG C1000, anything Behringer or Nady, Marshall Valvestate amps, Zoom pedals, Samson and Alesis power amps, etc. That though could get ugly!

Mikey C,
I did that. It's called "Worst Purchase Decisions". It's in Small Steps also... It's been fun. Now you mention another piece that I don't understand why people slam it so hard. While it's not the best thing around, the AKG C1000S is a very useable mic IMO. I don't think they sound particularly bad, but I must be deaf! :D I have heard this mic slammed from one end of the Forum to the other. I don't get it... sure there are other mics that sound way better, but the C1000S is a decent inexpensive mic to start with. Certainly a different flavor from a 58. On the other thing you mentioned, I agree :D , Genelec, Hafler, KRK, and PMC
Those are good. …………………….. Pick one.
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my best purchase was the studio projects C-1 mic. Its better than my nady

My Distressors have really given me alot of quick options for tracking and mixing. :)

OK , let's go back to the cheap compressors for a minute. I have to say that ALL of my budget gear has less headroom compared to that of my high end gear. My RNC is a great compressor, but I don't like the make up gain artifacts at all. My Behringer Composer does not perform near as well as the RNC,but used wisely,will blend a signal smoothly into a mix. By contrast, my Distressors can make just about everything sound better even if I'm not using it to compress the signal. So, if you are careful with gain staging,I'm sure you can make use of what you have.

NHT A-20 reference monitors, NHT B-20 subs, NTH PVC

Pair of Distressors

Forssell CS-1