I'm with P Floding mostly. In-store dems are not quite useless, but are only good to give you an idea of what you really don't like, and a few clues as to what you like.
I would also buy second-hand - most of my stuff has been acquired this way. In the OP's position, I would listen to speakers first - do I like panels (buy a pair of Quad ESL-63s then), small monitors (my kitchen Harbeths were only £300 on ebay), high-efficiency units (my old Snells sold for scarcely over £100, what a bargain!)? Then get an amp to suit; probably valves for me, but that's my personal choice. Newish Rotels or Arcams would drive most speakers reasonably well. Until you have heard a system that you think is totally amazing, and can describe what you're looking for, it's quite hard to advise. My meat may be your poison; you may even be vegetarian :) There's a big difference in 'character' between systems, but mostly in speakers. You need to make some steps to start with; hi-fi shows can be good for this. The WAF is also an issue. My wife loves the look and feel of my system - chrome and valves all over the place. I'd struggle to get a Transporter into the place as it's so ugly! Oh and a linear PSU will probably make far less impact than the rest of the system; I'd suggest leaving the tweaks until you have a generally good sound. You should be able to achieve this without spending loads in the periphery. HTH, YMMV, etc etc Adam -- adamslim SB3 into Derek Shek d2, Shanling CDT-100, Rotel RT-990BX, Esoteric Audio Research 859, Living Voice Auditorium IIs, Nordost cables http://www.last.fm/user/AdamSlim/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31780 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
