Thank you evryone for your advice/opinions. I will defionetily not go for the Bose then, maybe a seperates system. I might've been a bit too ambitious with the price range there!

The alternative would be seperates. I live in the Brighton & Hove area,(near to), so wouldnt be a problem to getting down there and looking at various retail shops. Could anyone advise me at all on this? I probably would have a buget of say £500 - £700.

What would you need to buy? An amp, a CD player, and speakers?

It would be hard to get all of those for £700 I'm afraid. More like £1100 to £1200? Maybe Ron would have a good idea about price, or perhaps quality secondhand gear?

Well, I don't think personally that they are very good, at least for good sound. Sony, I suppose might be OK - but a rather limited sound quality, and some other makes would be quite poor.

But others who have experience of these systems should advise here as well.

BBM,

It's taken a while to write this, meanwhile other posts have appeared: however...

The sensible place to start would be at Richer Sounds, who have a Brighton Branch: though in the interests of choice, there are two other dealer chains with a great reputation also located there: Audio-T and Sevenoaks. I have no links with Richer, other than being a very satisfied customer of many years' standing, and I have had dealings with both of the other two, having indeed actually worked for one of them for a short while after it took over the independent store where I had worked on-and-off for the best part of two decades; you're spoilt for choice round there. When it comes to the built-in systems from the big names, then the caveat I've mentioned before about the advertising budget probably applies, by the way.

http://www.richersounds.com/information.php?cda=locationdetails&locationid=39

http://www.audio-t.co.uk/?section=stores&page=stores&id=4

http://www.sevenoakssoundandvision.co.uk/store.asp?id=12

Although you've given us your budget, you've not as yet told us what you want for that. I'm guessing CD, Amp, Tuner and Speakers. Correct? Richer handle the Cambridge range - British owned and designed, though built abroad, and if you're considering full sized separates, that's certainly where I'd start: a couple of years ago I helped an elderly friend of mine who had had very high-end equipment in the seventies and was moving to a much smaller house find a new system. He'd actually bought one of the Bose units as a replacement, and although he still has it, it's now in the kitchen, because it's acceptable there whilst he found it disappointing in the main room. Since he can no longer get out and about much, and I had supplied much of his original equipment in the days when I still worked part-time in retail Hi-Fi, he asked if I would help him build a new system, not too big, not too expensive, which would go some way to recreating what he'd loved about his big set-up. We ended up with a Cambridge amp and Cd player, which are really wonderful value, and once they've run-in (the better a piece of kit, the longer it takes to stabilise) convey a good sense of what's on the discs without calling attention to themselves. I'd guess that the other two stores are going to be fairly hard-pressed to compete with separates in that price range, but give them a try. Richers can get a little frantic at times, but see if you can book a demonstration, which you'll certainly be able to do at the other two. Take two or three favourite discs with you - contrasted material from more than one genre, label and era if possible, and be prepared to let them do the rest, though be firm about what you want (i.e. if you're not intending to go audio-visual then stop them demonstrating that) and how much you're prepared to pay - do remember though that there will be extras: cables and speaker leads, and very possibly speaker stands, too.

Speakers are a very much more personal choice: I know what I like at virtually every price level, but am very aware that my ears have different preferences to many others; when I first started, there was one top-selling loudspeaker I couldn't bear to listen to; it didn't stop me selling them to those who loved them, after all it was their money and their choice, but I never understood what endeared them to the majority. There is a Richer deal now where speakers come free with a Cambridge amp and CD player at around £500; one possibility would be to go for that package now and look at better speakers later if you find those supplied don't suit you. But it is your choice. Let others guide, but your ears decide.

Andy, yes, we need to move this all to a more relevant location, agreed.

The elderly friend I mentioned earlier (not above, note) has a 340. A really nice machine, very good for the money. I liked it so much that I've bought a 540 for the study here. A tad on the warmer and richer (no pun intended) side of neutral than your Audiolab (which is to my ears about the same distance the other side of neutral) it is none the less a very musical beast, faithfully representing what's fed into it - quite competent at showing the differences between quite expensive CD players for example. The more powerful 540A with the CD player as well - and that really is several strides ahead of most of the similarly priced competition at the offer price - strikes me as a really sensible place to start for a main system, allowing for a greater variety of speakers to be driven satisfactorily.

 Don't forget that greater amplifier power isn't just for going louder, but allowing more headroom for musical peaks at the same playing level, in exactly the same way that a car with greater horsepower will have better acceleration than a more lowly one, even when staying within a given speed limit. I'm aware that BBM tends to listen to quite large-scale music, and am surmising that his system will need plenty in hand to be able to launch forth properly into those great crescendi....

Ron suggested the Azur 540 which Richer do for £250 as opposed to £150 for the 340. When I were a lad  , a rough guide used to be spend 1/3rd of your budget on each of amp, speakers, CD player (I'm sure Ron will correct me if my memory is faulty). Plus you've got to get cables etc so the 540 is pushing you above your stated range of £500-700. If you want a tuner as well, you've definitely got to go for the 340. But either will sound much better than any complete system.

Do try to listen if you can. When I bought my Audiolab in 1987, I listened to it against some other amps, using the same speakers and CD player, and was amazed at the difference in the sound. Having settled on the amp, I then compared CD players and finally speakers, which are the hardest thing to choose and do depend on what sort of music you listen to.

I've always found Richer to be pretty good and have bought several audio items from them, although avoid going in at the busy times eg lunchtime, Saturday.

Hey  there people. Ive thought about these items. What do you reckon:

Cambridge Audio:

£249.95 /Azur 640A V2(black)