Antonio,

Just for the record, I probably listen to music from various sources ( car radio, car CD, CD, DVD and now vinyl) for about 50 hours a week. Regardless of the source, I get great pleasure from good music. I also like to explore various avenues for increasing the pleasure of listening to my favourites. That's what the HIFI hobby is all about, pretty sad if you just do it to impress your mates

Besides which, what would you know my friend, what with your preoccupation with all things AV

Thanks for all the tips guys (excuse the pun). Robbo, I will take you up on that offer to listen to the amp, thanks for that.

Ian and Chris, I'm really trying to keep the costs right down  but the Koetsu is seemingly behaving itself now  Do these things run in after setup or something  It's still down on one channel, but that's nothing a balance control doesn't sort out. I have heard many Koetsus at shops over the past 20 years, and must admit, I love the qualities. The bass is phenomenal, the midrange just lives and breathes. Yes it's a bit soft and rolled off in the treble but I think that's half the appeal. It was interesting when the Absolute Sounds guy came round to set it up. He was playing with the loading to get the sound that they prefer. Well to me it was wrong. It was as if he was trying to make the TT sound like a good CD player, whereas I want it to sound like the TT's I remember from years ago.

That is one of my fears about switching to the likes of Dynavector, Ortofon or VDH as you guys have suggested. From what I have read, they sound very different to the Koetsu's presentation. And of course it's impossible to dem them first. Thanks WM for the mention of the Red, sadly I suspect it would be out of my price bracket It's also a risk getting a retip. If anyone fancies a trip over to Bucks to inspect the stylus in return for generous beverage allowance, I would really appreciate someone telling me whether the Onyx has a little life left or whether I need to act now. Funnily enough, the surface noise was a lot less intrusive tonight, plus end of side distortion is less noticeable. I do find myself wondering if it had been used poorly setup recently, and needed a little time to settle following it's realignment yesterday.

Cheers for the support guys, now tomorrow I'm going record shopping Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye, Bobby Womack, Led Zep..........