Hiya, my ‘collection’ is a bit of a moving feast as things come and go! 
I reckon that absolutely every bit of equipment I own currently, stands me at less than £2k. That includes items that have been given to me, some bought new, some from eBay either working or needing repair. A right mix of stuff, turntables, tuners/amps/ cassette decks/speakers/stands/cartridges/switch boxes/audio timers/cabling etc. However, it is all analogue apart from a Bluetooth receiver that plugs into the AUX ports on the amps for Spotify!
For that money I can swap stuff around, put systems into different rooms, I even have something in the garden bar outside! 
there’s not an optical/hdmi/coaxial connection to be seen anywhere! I never used to really understand how music can sound but rekindled an interest in primarily retro analogue stuff a few years ago. I believe it sounds very nice indeed to my ears and when you see what I have for my money, great value too. I would love a room with one chair in, all the equipment optimised to suit me but as I’ve said before, everything (for me) has to be a compromise 
Hence the never ending pursuit of a better sound without breaking the bank. A lot of my stuff is way over 40 years old and is what I used to look at when I was in my twenties but could never afford! I’m living the dream I guess!
Barrie
Enjoy living it and if you have to make some compromises then that’s the price we all have to pay…
Bumping it up a bit, these packages just arrived (a day early too) couple of pics, will get more when unpacked and connected 
Barrie
Speaker stands first. I am impressed with the quality of these stands The packaging is fantastic, with everything individually wrapped and in cartons within the main heavy duty outer box.
An instruction/assembly manual is included but they are easy to assemble without. Each stand weighs 5.4kg and the top and bottom plates account for quite a lot of that weight, very substantial.
Bottom plates with adjustable spikes, give excellent stability, top plates ‘might’ be a tad small in surface area but with the included sorbathon style pads ensure the speakers don’t move once mounted.
In approximately their final position, I love the co-ordinated look of the speaker and stand.
A few close ups.
Now to unpack the subwoofer!
Barrie
Not one to hang around, I have now got the subwoofer unboxed and installed! 
simplicity itself to do, the four adjustable spiked feet, very similar to the stands, screw into the base, existing speaker leads on banana plug connections, go to the input side, then shorter leads from outputs, to the speakers! I will have some tweaking and adjustments to undertake but all fired up straight away and already sounds a lot better. This partly will be down to the repositioning of the speakers on their new stands, the bass line however is far more prominent than before without being in your face.
More tweaking can only get it even better i reckon, as I’m not lucky enough to have got it in the sweet spot at the first attempt! 
Barrie
Bought an acrylic platter mat for the Audio-Technica TT. I’d mentioned before about checking antiskate control against the factory settings and this will allow me to do that correctly, using the reverse side of the mat. The TT came with a felt slip mat which I didn’t like at all. Swapped that out for the rubber mat from the ONKYO TT, greatly improved the overall sound. I’ve read many reviews relating to acrylic mats, this one from Hudson HI-FI is the right thickness (3mm) to keep the tone arm horizontal when playing a record. There is a central recess for the label area of the record, allowing it to sit flat on the mat, giving full contact between mat and record. I’m happy with that but care needed when placing or removing a record I reckon, to avoid any scratches to the playing surface
TBH, I was having slight issues with tone arm resonance or at least feedback vibration being picked up by the cartridge, this appears to have almost disappeared which is great! I know some platters are solid acrylic to start with so there must be some benefits i went for solid white as in this picture.
I’m more than happy with that. It’s also good that I can swap it between all the other TT’s, having the same platter diameter!
Barrie
Interesting. Do you find any change in how it attracts static electricity and dust?
Static can have some very peculiar effects with light-weight arms, as well as attracting dust.
One of the nice original (but not advertised) features on the rubber 1960s Garrard 301 mats I have was they were anti-static, we assumed with a little bit of carbon loading. We also used felt slip mats that had been given anti-static spray (same stuff as used to cure our dreadful zapping carpets at work).
Hi Richard, not given it much of a test run yet TBH. Will report back when I’ve had chance to use it a bit more. I have one of those ‘carbon’ record brushes which I use before dropping the stylus to play a record, I wonder if that’s working on both the record and platter mat together?
Barrie
An interesting video here.
I must admit, looking at that, I’ve been doing it wrong for a long time! 
Barrie
He’s doing it all wrong!
I’ve used the same Parostatik since the 1960s. It is a cylindrical brush which you rotate slowly to lift the dust from the surface of the moving disc, no sideways sweeping at all. It has a central sponge one wets for some humidity to kill the static.
I gave up on the dust-bug because its bristles were too noisy…
I did consider the arm type brush which has a ground wire? Not sure how effective they are though. The parostatik cleaner looks great but they appear to be made from unobtainium and not available to buy!
Barrie
I used a Parostatik for many years, until our dog murdered it, then I replaced it with a Metrosound Ioniser which is much the same idea but oblong.
Barrie. I’ve just seen a s/h Parostatik on eBay for £8.00 + £3.10 p&p.
PS: Rega, the manufacturer of my other T/T and arm does not recommend using arm type brushes.
Bought it!
Thanks for signposting me to it Roger, looking forward to receiving it now!
Barrie
I’ve just installed some very nice speaker cables and interconnects to the AIWA set up in the lounge. Never before have I possessed such nice RCA phono cables! they are THE CHORD COMPANY COBRA 3’S.
The speaker cables are CHORD RUMOUR 2’s.
Neither are currently available as they have been replaced with revised versions.
The speaker cables are directional, once burnt in, and should not be turned around, so care needed when installing.
The interconnects look fabulous, ‘British Racing Green’ according to CHORD
. Gold plated plugs which contrast very nicely. So, it’s given me a chance to replace all existing cables, as another step in my quest for audio Nirvana! Well, hardly but you know what I mean .The Audio-Technica TT has RCA sockets on the rear so I’ve been able to swap them out too for COBRA 3’s.
The speaker cables have a really small cross section so have fitted much better under the carpet at the lounge door.
On to the technical testing!
This just consisted of me listening to some vinyl, tweaking sub woofer phase, volume and frequency, altering speaker positions etc, all with tone defeat switched on, no loudness or filters engaged, in an attempt to get a “neutral” sound.
Have to say, the sound has noticeably improved
Really pleased with the outcome. Its a coming together of various things though. Turntable set up correctly, slightly better cartridge and stylus combo than im used to, acrylic platter mat, record weight, speaker stands and new cables, all the interconnects improved, a half decent rack stand for the equipment and so it goes on!
The amplifier ‘B’ speaker outs to the mono-blocks are 2 pin DIN plugs so I’ve ordered some 2mm banana plugs for the spring type outputs for speakers ‘A’ on the amp. I will terminate the new cables with them when they arrive, so banana plugs all round! It should at least be as good if not better than the current DIN plug configuration, which do tend to come loose after a while
One last bit of the upgrade is, the BT receiver that inputs to one of the AUX ports on the amp (mainly for Spotify and French FIP radio) is twin male RCA to 3.5mm male jack. I’ve also ordered a twin female RCA to 3.5mm adapter to utilise a pair of COBRA 3 phono leads for that connection.Barrie
Spaghetti junction no less! 
Following on from Richardfx mentioning and Countryboy providing a link to a PAROSTATIK disc preener on eBay, I bought it and its just arrived!
I’ve charged it up with clean water and once it’s seeped through to the outer cleaning layer, I’ll give it a whirl! Also Richardfx asked about static on the new white acrylic platter, happy to report no airborn dust/fibres etc appear to be attracted to it and can’t see any transfer from vinyl records either.
Barrie
Hi Barrie, did the Parostatik come with the white endcaps for the tube? They guarantee all the brushy fibres are uniformly humidified.
If endcaps off then those at the edges/ends of the roller remain dry and less effective.
The Parostatic originally came with an anti-static fluid, add a drop to the sponge before the water, but I never bothered with that, I just sometimes rinse the sponge in its tube in well diluted washing-up liquid as a wetting agent.
I asked about the static because on one deck (Goldring Lenco at work) it was sufficient to help/push the arm off the record! We changed the slip mat material, problem cured.
I can’t use anything Acrylic as I get zapped almost immediately and quite painfully.