This was sparked off by a comment from Mick Parry a little while back and my response to it. My No. 2 system lives down in what the Swiss call the Bastelraum (“hobby roomâ€Â) under the house, a room about 5M square, 2.5M high and solid concrete covered with rendering (vinyl for the floor)). It has three sound sources: Linn LP12/Ekos/Klyde MC (second-hand) supported on its own rubber feet, playing through a Creek OBH-9SE phono stage Meridian 588 CD player (ex Ian “Sideshowbobâ€Â) Sony cassette deck TC-K615S Now comes the ancient part Amplifiers: Quad 33/303 (1981 vintage, with Net Audio modifications) Quad 44/405-2 (unknown vintage but excellent condition, bought on E-Bay for about £360 the lot) each connectable via a switching box to the same speakers, namely Rogers LS3/5A (1981 vintage) Klang+Ton “Cheap Trick†active transmission line subwoofer - see [URL]https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15[/URL] Everything can play through the 44/405-2 and the CD player can play through either amplifier (they sound so alike that I have to look at the position of the switches on the switching box to see which one's playing). Interconnects (DIN plugs) by courtesy of good ol' David Laine of Flashback Sales (how did I ever live without him?). The 33/303 and LS3/5As were bought new, but are readily available second-hand (although people often ask for silly money for LS3/5As). The point is that this set-up sounds very good indeed. A very subjective statement, I know; I'm not saying that it's the greatest, or that it can't be bettered, but it makes great music for my overwhelmingly classical tastes (I have rock, but it's largely confined to ornamental bits in the garden, and I don't feel the need accurately to reproduce minor nuclear explosions). With two very large daughters and a Swiss mortgage, I don't have a lot of money to spend on hi-fi, but the point is that I don't have to, and I have no particular desire to compare with anyone else's. So, impoverished music lovers, take heart! You actually don't need all the latest gizmos or spend a fortune to have good sound. OK, it'll never make the Audiophile Club of Athens's list of high end systems, but who cares?