"mark" wrote in message
oups.com...
I think I understand your dilemma - you have more or less decided on a
stack
of gear and you want to say to the dealer 'I know what I want, just wheel
out the boxes, cut me a 'speedy spender' deal and I'll be gone in 60
seconds!' or somesuch? No?

Ok...I admit it, the above had crossed my mind.

This stack he

http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/show/stack.JPG

It'll cost you about 210 (total) from Argos and you'll get 3 identical
remotes which will operate everything. Grab one and get a Dymo tape
machine
to make some fancy labels to stick on each piece (I leave it up to you to
choose a sutable name) and then grab a pair of Living Voice Auditoriums

I'm slightly disturbed by your in depth knowledge of this "system",
Keith! ;-) Have you auditioned one yourself? Do you, dare I say it, own
one?


Damn, am I that transparent?


Three remotes...I'm sorely tempted.


I know - I still can't get used to the idea myself!! :-)




The Living Voices are a bit over my speaker budget but they do look
sure to impress my mates, and my 12 year old Mordaunts are getting a
bit long in the tooth. Do you think they can handle the output from the
Argos rig though? ;-) I'd hate to think they weren't doing it
justice...


:-)

See below....



Actually, more seriously, I'm looking at an Arcam CD73, an Arcam A70
amp...and possibly some B&W 603 S3s. Can't stretch to anything fancy
like a tuner.


Hmm....

Just as I thought - you are spending all the money on the electronics.

The reason I got the Argos stuff was to find out how good it was at the
price - bearing in mind you can get your money back if not satisfied, within
a couple of weeks. I actually only bought the amp to start with (60 quid,
IIRC) but was so impressed at the VFM aspect (and the reet *snacky* buttons)
I followed up with the matching CD and DAB just for fun!

Hifi electronics are a done deal these days, you really can get a perfectly
good DVD player for 20 quid!! (Silvercrest from Lidl's a while back...)
Quite what some suppliers are providing for kit costing 10 times the price
(and looking only a wee bit better) I really couldn't guess! The CD player
is the least impressive of the 3 bits of kit but it was utterly
*indistinguishable* from a ********y Marantz 'KI Signature' ubertweaked CDP
I already had, when the Marantz' internal attenuation was used to
level-match the output. Not one person (in about half a dozen that heard
them both here) could tell them apart and I was able to switch between them
seamlessly, once I had 'time aligned' them. (Not hard to do...) The DAB is
as good as DAB gets...

Anyway, on my speakers (mostly up there in the high 90s/100 mark) they
positively *sparkle* - although I'm only using the DAB atm!! The only Arcam
amp and CD setup I've had here to audition was about a year ago and were the
'new models' then (CD72 and A65?) - they belonged to Ray Mr Bitsy and were
perfectly OK but they weren't 10 times better than the Argos stuff!!



With any luck I might get bored with the idea soon and be able to go on
holiday instead...


I'm on holiday now (note the hour) but, as I'm retired, it's a bit like
doing 'overtime' to me!! ;-)