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Lots of joy with modest system.

My reasonably modest bedroom system is, as the kids say, pure banging, especially on the vinyl side of things (pre-Cirkus LP12, RB300, Rega Exact, Norton PSU > Rega IO > Kralk Audio BC30 bookshelf speakers, wall mounted, of course). But the thing that also makes it boogie like phuk is the fact that it's much closer to being a near-field system compared to running the same system in my living room, which I used to do but with different amplification. My bedroom is only 270cm across so you feel - you are, I guess - much closer to the action.

I put this system together because my living room gets too hot in summer and so it's hard to enjoy playing records when you're melting like a snowman. But my wee bedroom system (+ room) is so good, so banging it might be the middle of winter before I return playing records through my Tannoys in the living room.

The key thing I'm saying here is that room physics, layout and furnishings are always at work and thankfully, my bedroom is very agreeable to having a reasonably modest, bass-lite system banging away.
 
Upgrades always hit diminishing returns issues sooner or later.

My bedroom system of Atom and Shahinian Compasses is not as good as all the boxes downstairs, but it is still very enjoyable. Also, the music you pick matters more than the hi-fi you pick, so concentrating on the hi-fi differences isn't really the priority.

35+ years ago, when my hearing was certainly considerably better, I would have been astonished by the sound quality available from this 1 box. I also wouldn't have regarded anything with that price (even inflation-adjusted) as 'modest' - more totally unaffordable. It's all relative...
 
My office system is modest and bought cheaply but still sounds great: Rotel RCD965BX, Rotel RA840B, Modified Thorens TD150 with a Rega RB 220, Denon DL110 and Celestion Ditton 10 studio series on Foundation stands. I sometimes swap the speakers for a pair of Rega Kytes. The main system downstairs consists of Avondale Arcam 5+, HackerNap, Arkless phono stage, B4 preamp and Quad ESL 63s with a Stack Audio modded LP12, Roksan Nima and Ortofon 2M Bronze. Both are equally enjoyable in different ways.
 


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