FAO Dave Plowman

yes it still exists :)

It does, but it's more correctly called Keith G.'s Blog these days. ;-)

Any idea if I'd be better off with an old Arcam Alpha 3 cd player or an old Technics MASH? I know the Technics are alright, but I could stack the arcams on top of each other easily and they'd all look the same? Feeling too lazy to pester my news providers...

The Arcam is certainly a decent bit of kit. Does it play home recorded CDs ok? That's sometimes a problem.

I've still got a Philips CD 104 in use...;-)

Heh - I no longer have a CD player in use - both my home systems are DVD based. Last CD player was a CD63mkII.

Heh - I've got what must be a slightly later model than that - a CD 732. Bought with my birthday money when I was 14 IIRC, and still in regular use today. Nothing fancy, no A-B repeat or owt like that, just works. Probably not the super-duper best in terms of absolute audio reproduction, but I haven't got audiophile-style ears [1] so I'm not too bothered.

[1] Musical ears, yes - I can pick out obscure chords from the other end of the country, but when it comes to noticing whether or not the top end of the audio spectrum's being accurately reproduced through high-end gear, I'm buggered.

My amp's a 1988 Yamaha A1 (I think, I can't be arsed to go downstairs and look)

I can serpently notice the difference between my hifi (16 year old Tannoy

605 speakers) and the (admittedly very cheap) Tevion home cinema system I bought from Lidl. It's quite good for films but fairly crap for music.