Buy something brilliant that defines the sound you love at that time and stick with it for a good few years. Whether amps, or speakers. Good digital sources are ten a penny and cheaper than ever these days…so buy a good amp/speaker and base it around those. Good combo’s ive had… Quad II and ESL Musical Fidelity MA50 class a monoblocks and B&W 805 matrix Musical Fidelity A370 class a monster and ATC SCM40 passive Krell integrated and ATC SCM40 MF kw250 and atc scm 40 Active ATC SCM50a

Plus loads i just played with when i worked in a hifi shop years ago. Enjoy.

I think a lot of the sound i and other people like is basically nice colouration and distortion whether valve, vinyl, electrical ‘synergy’ or tonal ‘synergy’ ie well matched components that come together in a pleasing sound. Far too many variables and moneypit opportunities so My approach is to use a clean digital source, clean amps (like nad/putzi) and neutral high performance dynamic speakers then tune all of the above with digital filters/peq to match the presentation i like. In my case Tidal/WiiM pro/RME ADI2 FS Pro/ Balanced XLR/Active ATC SCM50a/REL 812 sub. Don’t really bother with my gyrodec/sme v any more…looks nice though :-)

I don’t use my £8k turntable anymore. WiiM pro/rme dac/tidal. Bargain. Gorgeous sound.

Yep…our lifelong journey in hoarding and obsessing about mancrap is just more shit to quickly get rid of for the widow and family. At least he enjoyed it. I hope he had a lot of fun and maybe some holidays and family time with the money left over.

Time is money. Diy is fun. Music is the mission.

I enjoy and appreciate great design and decor. I don’t like pretentiousness. I get a little triggered and conflicted when i see some Eames chair trope ‘designer’ aesthetic on these sub’s…nice but yawn inducingly unimaginative and uninteresting. I also trigger when i see no attention or conceptual awareness of design/soul/aesthetic…i cant even watch porn if the sofa they fuck on is shit 😆. Style and taste are priceless. Decorating with style and taste costs money time and effort. I appreciate all of that when i see it. I love my wife’s edgy cool taste and aesthetic and how we work on design and decor together in the house over time. I also think its great to have your own space in a relationship both spiritually and physically. I call that my mancave. A 4x 5m wooden cabin in the garden. It’s deliberately different to my house. Its full of hifi, av, keepsakes, childishness and general mancrap. It’s an indulgent luxury but should not be at the expense of the wider family budget imo, so i keep it simple and cheap in terms of decor. It’s got an old ebay log burner now that i fitted, carpet tiles i got for free off my mum, fishtanks and lizards. Its for me. Not for anyone else. Anyone is welcome but it’s my place for my people. I tidy it when i have a hot date/cinema night with the Mrs and improve it as spare funds allow. I watch movies with the kids. I work from it most of the time. But i like that it can be untidy, messy, eclectic and interesting and very me, and i like that another more designer, public friendly and tidy me is expressed in our house or my shoes or my choice of car.

Anyone bitching about bitrate is missing the point. Content trumps bitrate and format and you can’t get most of the content elsewhere. Just enjoy the performance. Stop twitching 🤣. And i speak as a twitcher.