I certainly don't want to get locked into a system again, like with B&O, which in hindsight was not so much a mistake, as it holds it price in the second hand market and I didn't do too bad in selling it. Avant tube television excepted - technology had moved on, I was missing the whole BluRay and Netflix stuff.

The Naim holds it's own, certainly against the likes of Musical Fidelity, but then again, once you're in this zone, like bespoke tailoring, you're buying the distinctive sound stage of the brand and some people prefer one or the other. And there's many others out there of course.

I will do research on Arcam, thanks, Formby.

I know MP3: compressed to almost two dimensions!

Interestingly, my hifi shop sells some real high-end stuff and they're often auditioning 50K+ systems. They inform me this market falls into two exclusive demographics: Brits and Dutch business men. And the lower range 20K and below (ahem), you can extend that further, to yet more Brits and Dutch, with both nationalities who will make sacrifices for their system e.g. driving crap cars.

Cars are the death zone for CD's, once in there, anything can happen: scratches, lost cases, incorrect cases and as I found to my dismay this morning, this missus might use them to de-ice the wind screen!