Most valuable to me is...a pair of Marantz Imperial 6's and an Onkyo A7055 integrated. It' s a match made in heaven; good treble that doesn't burn my ears. Maybe due to a little aging in the components tailoring the frequency response? Who knows? Who cares? It's vintage, after all, it's supposed to age.
The missing piece was put in place when I got my old Thorens TD-110 with an Audio Technica 13 L cartridge fired up. That linear contact stylus was magic. Later, the AT 13 was replaced with a similar AT-440MLa
This was long after I'd tried the onwards and upwards approach, ending with an Onkyo A-7 and Polk Model 10's (before they were renamed Monitor 10's, BTW), plus the Thorens. I was never satisfied with it. All are still in the collection.
Now I have a whole zoo. There are the speakers; the Dynaco A-50's, which gave such a compelling rendition of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony; the KLH 23's, whose bass is not as good as the Dynacos'; the EPI 100's that were my first refoaming project; the Boston Acoustics A-40's that I bought for my mother back in the '80's; the Avid 100's I bought in my onwards and upwards phase, and a nitwit sister put a little smash in the sides; the Avid 102's from Craigslist; the JBL 100's from a yardsale. Those I would play through a Pioneer SA-9500 in parallel with the Imperial 6's. The Grateful Dead's Live at the Cow Palace would come alive with that combination. The L 100's would provide the gut thumping that concert required.
Philips 475 speakers; nice but a little harsh. Same for the Advent/1's, also a refoam project. The unfortunate AR-2ax's which are horribly nasal, and a tweeter replacement didn't fix. The nice old Dynaco A-25's that need re-veneering. Oh, yeah, and Dynaco A-35's I picked up at an auction that I lost. But it was part of a lot, and the guy who won was far more interested in the other pieces, so he sold the Dynacos to me for a really good price.
And...the Fisher XP-7's that at first were a disaster, but an Advent fried-egg tweeter turned into a sometimes wonderful, but low-pitched system. Sometimes I have to place them well away from a wall to avoid boomy bass.
That's just speakers. Electronics? My new daily driver, an Eico ST-70, with the electrolytic capacitors replaced, and sooner or later the resistors, Hitachi SR-8010 that at one time I was really enthusiastic about (I bought a second off eBay); Sony STR 7055; Adcom GFA 545 and Hafler DH-100 - the DH-100 I found in an antique store for $15; Fisher 500-T that needed a couple 1 uF caps in the tone control board; Pioneer SX-636; Scott 383 receiver. Some black plastic workhorses, a Technics and an Onkyo.
Oh, and that leaves turntables: Pioneer PL 510, Philips GA-312, Technics SL-D2, Miracord/Realistic 46 for the family 78's, under-the-radar Sony PS-LX2.
Cassette decks, even? A Denon and a Sony, and a couple Teacs.
Digital - CD and DVD? The grand old Toshiba SD-3960, two of 'em, on their last legs. A couple Sonys, an Onkyo and Denon multi discs.
Add a Technics 12 band graphic equalizer to the mix.