I had several pairs in my youth - mk1 up to around mk4 I think. I ended up using them with Albarry amps at one point and they still did the biz ...

I thought we were talking about cheap systems!

Kev concertos £5 from the charity shop hooked up to a Nad amp(can't remember what model but it was free). Run the istuff through a Bluetooth or plug my phone in and it sounded great!

I've got an Armstrong receiver there just now as well £5 car boot sale,hook it up to Tannoy Mercurys and that's very good as well. I've had all sorts of cheap stuff. Buy it,put it together,enjoy it for a while them move the lot on.

An AR 04 amp hooked up to Mission 752s was awesome as well - £75!

It's a good topic though - new thread perhaps?

Ha, maybe not ...

I was thinking along the lines of when a hifi system can get in the way of enjoying the music, as Tim and Martin got onto ...

Here's a system I have and both the amp and speakers are currently on loan to a mate who came back from travelling skint so it's keeping him in music til he gets his life together...

Celestion Ditton 15 - £10 from a local recycling centre
Amptastic Mini-T - £45 bought second hand from a forum
Chromecast Audio - £20

Or

Hifimediy Sabre USB DAC - £45 plus linear PSU £10 and a laptop or PC. Really natural sounding DAC, brilliant for the money. Also doubles as a nice headphone amp for a laptop.

Cables are NVA soundcord between the DAC and amp, a cheap QED one with the Chromecast. Speaker cables that simple cambrige audio stuff from Richers at £2/metre.

This system has done good service in my office and since I tend to use headphones whilst working now was able to loan it to mate.

You both have perhaps more in common than you realise. You clearly both place music above the gear used to reproduce it.

I'm unashamedly in the other camp. I love hifi gear for its looks, feel, design, pleasure of use and build quality, I literally couldn't get pleasure from computer audio and T amps, believe me, I've tried, it seems to be frowned upon to place the love of hifi above the love of music, but that's how I feel so there's no use hiding it or pretending to be something I'm not.

Am I in a very small minority or are there more like me, I wonder?

I go around in a big loop most days on my bike.
Great bike, great ride which I enjoy and miss when weather makes it dangerous.

Keep thinking about an upgrade.
Only to enhance the enjoyment of the ride.
What it looks like is close to irrelevant.
A bright colour would be useful to increase visibilty is all

You are the 'watered-down' version of Peter Breuninger 

S.

I totally get that actually, someone else (@classicrock I think) said how important just the feel of a volume pot turning was. Kudos to you for admitting it, as does Steve Guttenberg. There's a lot of folk in denial who get touchy and 'claim' it's all about the music, when it clearly isn't (not you MartinT ) To me there is also a distinct difference between Hi-Fi and real music and I don't like what I call a Hi-Fi sound it's just not real - again what we prefer is as personal as analogue vs digital and Americana vs Prog Rock.

For me, I enjoy a good sound but I found that a few years back and I don't have the want or patience to endlessly tinker, I just don't have the time. I want to spend that time discovering new artists, rediscovering old ones and I'm going backwards a lot these days into old blues, swing and jazz. Those that don't know me think I just like old rock, female singers and new country, based on my spins. But that's the tip of the iceberg, what I put in 'What are you playing now . . .'  is often current music I think might be of interest to help support current artists, rather than regurgitating old stuff most should know. 99% of it fails, but every now and then someone will like a new and currently active band I play, as current live music is a big thing for me.

As for Hi-Fi, my perfect listening/living room would just have speakers on view, everything else would ideally be out of sight and not needed, I don't need or want anything but the music.