Musical heaven

Good evening blogger world, today found me in a fiscally unchallenged mood, so I treated myself - to the tune of £450.00. Such expenditure has brought me halfway to musical heaven, so far it has proven to be money very well spent.

I love listening to music, it is my favourite medium of entertainment, discounting cute guys that is; we all have our weaknesses, I guess! Joking aside, I live for music - it speaks so much and I gain so much from it, it enriches my life beyond words. For the past two years I have owned an Onkyo CR-715 micro system paired with QAcoustic 1020i speakers and a Pro-ject Debut mkIII turntable with an Ortofon OM5e stylus. It has given me joy and half-decent sound but I always knew a micro system did not compare to a set of quality separates; and I did not have the money to spend on even a budget separates system, until today.

Today I took the plunge and upgraded to a separate amplifier and CD player; Marantz PM6002 amp and Marantz CD6002 CD player. Now the CD player will not be with me until tomorrow but I've set up the amp with my speakers and turntable  - with an upgraded stylus, Ortofon OM10 (thanks to Ians Christmas gift); and I've been playing my collection of vinyl non-stop since. The amp and CD player both won What Hi-Fi best buys for budget separates, so I was intrigued to find out if the sound would be noticeably different. And is it, absolutely fantastic - a cleaner, clearer sound stage with great stereo and instrument separation. I don't pretend to be an audiophile but the difference is astounding, remarkable and well worth the money; I'm sure it will only get better with time.

So there's some stock photos of my current setup above. If you're thinking of buying a decent budget separates system give the Marantz a listen - I love it already. Next stop a speaker upgrade, once the funding has recovered, or if anyone's feeling particularly generous it's my birthday next month - hint, hint.

I have just realised this post portrays me as a proper geek, believe me blogger world I'm not, honest.