I used to fancy myself as a hifi geek – a poor one though.

I read and researched systems, annoyed shop assistants, in the end I managed to get a setup that I liked, had it for 15 years now, although only started using it again the last 8 after putting it in storage.

An Exposure XX amp and B&W 602 speakers.

Exposure XX was a grand in 1990 when it was first made, I paid 400 quid for it, and still today it is sought after and costs 400quid.

I can’t tell the difference between a 1000 quid amp and a 10,000 quid one though. Mainly due to the night clubs that ruined my hearing – it is always cool until you get tinnitus permanently

B&W 602 speakers

I got a lovely pair of 602’s for £60 s/h.

They were great, were destroyed by a burst pipe flood.

Looked good to.

Naim have always had two faces to the hi-fi world – one is for kit that sounds great and “just works” as well as lasting for ever, the other panders to the serial upgrader with all the external power supplies etc. that you can add on. Linn to an extent are much the same.

I think I sort of straddle the line because my Linn turntable was one of the first LP12’s and hasn’t been upgraded at all since the 70’s. On the other hand while most of my Naim kit is also old I will admit that I did upgrade my CD player with an external power supply and am not entirely convinced I heard that much of a difference.

No doubt you’re right but I think you’re missing the point. Hifi geeks don’t really care about the music. It’s about the equipment and having “better” stuff than anyone else.

In my experience, that’s about as true as when people assume stw forum-dwellers don’t ride.
Many of the customers of my favourite hi-fi dealer are musicians. They also arrange monthly live music ‘outings’ (as well as real ale crawls).

THis is the exposure amp – simple, but sounds amazing.

Interestingly, from what I have read, the exposure speaker cable, gets the best out of the amp. or mains cable for speaker cable

Simple loud and clear. Weighs loads

THis is the exposure amp – simple, but sounds amazing.

My mate had the pre-power Exposure amps from the same period.

Sounded very good driving his Ruarks floorstanders but on my BBC-type speakers I wasn’t very impressed – my Quad 34/306 was a much better match.

Can’t remember which Ruarks, but they were big ‘pieces of furniture’ as they were that nicely made.

They still sell for good money exposure/ I think they are quite marmite in their sound

Many of the customers of my favourite hi-fi dealer are musicians

Interestingly a lot of classical musicians I’ve come across couldn’t give a toss about hi-fi.

Not a lot of money in being a classical musician though.

I’m big not into £100+ bottles of wine.

Anyway, anyone want a really good MP3 player?
http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/walkman/nw-zx2

Yeah, I saw that recently, though “how ******* much!”
Just ridiculous amount of money, the phones to do justice to that sort of music file will cost almost as much again.
This is a much better device, not only is the capacity upgradable as bigger MicroSDXC cards become available, but there are regular firmware updates as well.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/FiiO-X5-MP3-Player-DAC-Black/dp/B00I4Q9S32
Woppit, I have clear memories of lusting after a Walkman Pro and a Nakamichi Dragon.
Could never afford either, settled for an Aiwa FD-770 deck, three heads, adjustable tape bias, off-tape monitoring, produced excellent recordings onto TDK Metal tapes from 12″ vinyl on my Logic DM101 with a Zeta arm and AT MC cartridge. 😀