"MrTea" wrote in message
ps.com...
Thank you very much. I think this is probably normal behaviour in that
case (it's happened ever since I bought the amp second hand from a
reputable hifi specialist shop, who I presume would have spotted any
problems with it)



snipped


I have thought long and hard about this but I think Digital Audio is
improving all the time, and can now be stored at near hifi quality so I
would rather have a single media store (with all the benefits this
offers) and a decent enough amp to power my Kef Concerto floorstanders
whilst also thinking (later) about whole house distribution.

My budget is modest!

Any thoughts or suggestions welcomed.


A single media store does have advantages, especially now that storage costs
have come down such that you can store CDs as linear WAV files, so
absolutely no quality loss over the original CD. A 300G hard drive will
store some 500 typical CDs without any compression, and some 2000 is you use
a modest 4:1 compression like 320kbps MP3.

However, there are some disadvantages:-

The storage box will not be silent, as big hard-drives make a noise. Add to
that the internal fan usually present, and it's like having a PC in the
room. Not a problem if you can put the box out of the way in another room,
under the stairs etc, but a nuisance if you have it in the same room.

If you don't back up your music collection, one day you will have a disc
crash and lose the lot. Backup is relatively easy, but if effectively
doubles the cost of storage. Alternatively, you can back up by keeping the
original CDs, but restoring your library of, say, 1000 CDs won't be
something to tackle in an idle half-hour.

The media store softwares I've seen are very good at getting track
information for most pop/rock CDs, but less good with Jazz and folk, and
pretty poor with classical. If you have an extensive classical music
library, you may find loading the player somewhat tedious, as it's pretty
much a manual operation.

In my own system, I play CDs manually, but I have a 200G hard-drive for my
laptop to take away on holiday. Occasionally at home I will use the laptop
as a source as with a Digigram sound card fitted, the performance is
indistinguishable from a CD player direct - except for the PC's noise of
course.

Regarding amplifiers, your Concertos were rated at 30 watts and I remember
them being extremely well driven by a Quad 303, so any modern 50 watt
amplifier should do a good job with them.

S.