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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - Audio product which really floats your boat !

Like the OP I’ve always thought the Ittok looked superb - though I’ve never owned anything by Linn.

As well as the Lecson kit I thought the Lentek integrated amp looked very good.

Add virtually any Yamaha audio product from the 70s or 80s. The electronics had a wonderful clean look to them.

Finally, a Garrard 301, I’d love to own one.
 
I have to admit that is my nightmare. I’d feel like I was in prison or an estate agent show home! My house is rammed full of interesting things, every one with a story, a memory. The hi-fi is a huge part of that, a journey since I was a teenager, I know every nut, bolt and washer in my turntable, I’ve personally restored so much of what is a ‘classic’ system to as-new performance. I have a lifetime of collecting music shelved up, I can pretty much tell you where every single record came from, what is good about it and why it is there. I have guitars, keyboards, paintings, books, all kinds of things to the extent I barely have room to store anything anymore, but I’d not change it. Everything is there for a reason, even if it is just an asset to be released later. Tons of stuff, zero junk/clutter! Full is the new minimalism.

There is plenty of clutter like books, records, ornaments, pictures, plants, etc... to be seen. No Scandi minimalism here although I do find it attractive to look at and visit just not to live in. It is the "works" like audio hardware, TV, acoustic treatment, etc... that I prefer to have out of sight. I no longer seem to bond with hardware in the way I did when I was younger despite the DIY.
 
I have to admit that is my nightmare. I’d feel like I was in prison or an estate agent show home! My house is rammed full of interesting things, every one with a story, a memory. The hi-fi is a huge part of that, a journey since I was a teenager, I know every nut, bolt and washer in my turntable, I’ve personally restored so much of what is a ‘classic’ system to as-new performance. I have a lifetime of collecting music shelved up, I can pretty much tell you where every single record came from, what is good about it and why it is there. I have guitars, keyboards, paintings, books, all kinds of things to the extent I barely have room to store anything anymore, but I’d not change it. Everything is there for a reason, even if it is just an asset to be released later. Tons of stuff, zero junk/clutter! Full is the new minimalism.

Amen to that ... life is just a means of accumulating stuff - and lots of it.

When I retired I had the best intentions to finally declutter ... so I started acquiring, making or modifying drawer sets to hide the mountains of small parts of every description I had collected during my working life and that filled every available horizontal surface.
Since then I have acquired a sizeable collection of drawer sets of all sorts and sizes (16 at the last count) so much so that there is little space left to move - and all of them full.
Fortunately each one has a horizontal space on top for piling up more small parts of every description accumulated since I retired .....
 
I love the frosted acrylic finish of this CD player:

ahIKybX.jpg
 
I do like a lot of the British classics mentioned here already, Quad, Meridian and some Linn.

Also like 47 labs, Spectral (already mentioned) along with Bryston.

I also like the big old Denon and Bryston gear.

I generally hate the blingy uber expensive stuff with one exception - https://oswaldsmillaudio.com/. There big gear is gorgeous and totally mad.

Imperia_Ash-1_1000.webp
 
3047450-inline-i-3n-dieter-rams-can-do-no-wrong-and-this-retrospective-proves-it.jpg

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No Idea what the sound is like, but on looks I like - Dieter Rams design

I had the R2R in your picture for a couple of years in the 80s - great for recording and playback but lousy brakes so tape spaghetti on the floor was not uncommon. To be fair I bought it used and untested.

Most curious how the Dieter Rams version of Quad ESLs would have sounded though...
 
Like the OP I’ve always thought the Ittok looked superb - though I’ve never owned anything by Linn.

As well as the Lecson kit I thought the Lentek integrated amp looked very good.

Add virtually any Yamaha audio product from the 70s or 80s. The electronics had a wonderful clean look to them.

Finally, a Garrard 301, I’d love to own one.


Stunsworth - Heartily agree about your Ittok comments - As I said in my starter post was blown away by the look of it - Little things really like the Red dot which aligned to the tracking force gauge and if you where using a Asak cartridge back in the day a classic combination which also had a red dot on the end.

Funny enough I saw a Garrard 301 yesterday in a record shop I often go to which sells 2nd hand classical and Jazz records in Hove.Quite sad really it was part of a complete system in a stack with 301 in a plinth SME 309 Arm ?
and underneath a Audiolab Intergrated amp and below a Aiwa f770 cassette deck - Not sure about the speakers,but obviously belonged to an old boy who must have died,or in a care home....:(

Thanks everyone for your posts great seeing members fav's
 
Whenever I see a nice tidy pair of Quad IIs I always think ‘I really must buy a pair of Quad IIs’... then I remember just how much NOS KT66s cost! They are an amp I really want to own at some point, fabulous things, and I bet they’d match my Verdier pre superbly.
 
Definitely not after market.
The Planar 2 and 3 had the same trim when they came out too.

Planar 2
http://www.vinylengine.com/turntabl...id=b3f5db8b08dcb2de0997149c8ae55ea6&mode=view

Planar 3
https://darklanternforowen.wordpress.com/2018/07/13/rega-planar-3-restoration/

I much prefer them with the trim.
I have a 3 with said wood trim. Very beautiful indeed, stunning with the older dark cover; I'll never part with it willingly. It makes a wonderful aesthetic match to my teak A&R A60.

It's unfortunate that some such trimmed Regas were sold here in AO/NZ with the budget option of a Linn LVV, which required a different mounting hole position to the more expensive Grace 707 alternative (I don't think I've seen such a 3 with the R200). Unlike the Grace hole, the Linn mount means there's no upgrade potential with a Rega arm. I made very sure my plinth was drilled for a Grace arm.

Edit: I'd love to find some good small speakers to compliment the Rega 3/A60. My Heybrook HB3 S2 pair work in all ways but don't fit the space. The incumbent black Diamond 9.1s, while sounding great, are eyesores!
 


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