pekers678:bretty:
Hi Mate, I take it you're looking at 'Steve's hi fi' for your gear?
I bought my complete system off steve, last November. He's a good guy and has good gear in from time to time.
The good thing with Steve is that he will refurb all the gear before he sells it, as well as giving a three month guarantee. My cd player played up after a month or so, i took it back and he fitted a new laser with no hassle. Not many second hand places would do that.
Anyway, enough bigging him up. I've seen the Roger's in the shop. Nice. They're like the little brother to mine (studio 1a).
It's not on his website yet, but I know he has an Audiolab 8000a amp in. They are superb. I came very close to buying one myself, but it was pipped by the Cyrus. The Audiolab is more than the prices you have stated, but, if you're buying the whole system off Steve, don't be afraid to haggle!
Thanks for your help, and yes, Steve's Hifi was the shop that I've been looking at a lot. I live in the Hertfordshire region so Hastings is a quite a long way to go, so thanks for the reassurance - now I know he's good I'll send him an e-mail!Bretty, you mentioned that Steve has an Audiolab 8000a amp that's not on the website yet, does Steve put all his stuff on the website, or if I paid him a visit would he have more "in store"?.
When I went in last week, he said things had been a little slow and was low on stock. Even so, he still has a lot more gear on site than he has on the website, especially amplifiers, which he usually has between 100-200 at any time. Probably 50 sets of speakers and 20 or so turntables.
Although it is a trek for you, I would advise you to arrange a demo there. When I had my demo there, I gave him a shortlist of cd players and amps that I wanted to hear. When I got there, he had plugged all the cd players into one of the amps that was on my list. This was great because I could do a direct comparison between all the cd players, by playing a track on one, switching the input on the amp and straight away listening to the same track on the next player. Doing such a direct comparison really illustrated the different characteristics of each player.
I wouldn't worry about the guy's comment about thirty years of dust...Steve completely cleans the guts of all his stuff and does things like replacing any solder that has dried/weakened. Also, it's a fact that older stuff was designed to last more than the few years you can expect to get from modern electronics. Buy with confidence, fella.
Good luck with it all.
Bretty.