The first step of my ‘revitalise my hi-fi’ 43things item was completed yesterday. I won’t bore you with the gory details of selection of what I got and why, but those nice folks at Telly on the Blink in Inverness helped me choose. And in the process completely changed my mind on what I was going to consider.

So I ditched by old Arcam Delta 90 amplifier which served me well for the past 15 years and the Acoustic Research speakers that I’d bought from Laskys in Manchester when I was at university.

I now have an Arcam Solo which serves as both my amplifier and CD player. It also has DAB. My aging Linn Axis turntable goes through a Goldring pre-amp before it meets the Solo. My new speakers are a pair of Quad L21s [PDF link] which not only sound absolutely gorgeous, but feel lovely too. I also took the opportunity to replace all the interconnect cables with some rather well specified hand made cables – including one made specifically for connecting iPods (or indeed Mac minis!)

After a few listens yesterday I thought I’d give my old Sennheiser HD600 headphones a go with my Mac mini, via the Solo. First up was Cornflake Girl. Gosh, what a difference. It was like a new track. Specifically, whole bunches of instrumentation which I simply hadn’t heard before, an acoustic guitar I’d not noticed and some screechy synth or guitar line. A rediscovered, sonically and lyrically amazing track which I’m going to be playing to all my friends.

I’m writing this whilst listening to Electrelane’s 2004 album The Power Out through my speakers and I’m in love… the last track You make me weak at the knees is genius.