Over more than 25 years, this has progressed to the system I have now. I was one of the founding members of the Melbourne Audio Club 25 years ago, but after getting married and a job that demanded more time and travel, Audio became less of an interest. About 5 years ago, that interest got rekindled, and I rejoined the club, firstly taking up where I left off many years before, becomeing Jazz Group convenor, then President for two years. Now, for my sins I have the job of editing the Audio News our monthly magazine.

CD's used for monitoring the system changes include:

• Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat Cypress 32XB-123.
• Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Flight of the Cosmic Hippo Warner Bros 926562-2.
• Holly Cole Temptation Metro Blue 724383434824.
• Badi Assad Rhythms Chesky CD137
• John Kaizan Neptune TokyoSphere JVC JD-3316

System's Components
 

CD Player:	NEC CD 903. This virtually hand built player from NEC in the late 1980's has seperate power transformers for analog and digital circuits, optical transfer between analog and digital sections and four D/A converters. Although 10 years old, this CD player has outperformed many current players including the latest Sony 7 ES (not sure of model name).
Line Preamp:	Audio Electronics AE1 (Cary kit preamp). Class A Triode dual mono using 6SN7 tubes. Currently using Sylvania and Phillips NOS vintage 60's.
Power Amp:	Cary CAD845. Single ended class A using  6SN7 Input Tubes, 6BL7 Driver Tubes,  CV378 Rectifier Tubes and 845 Output tubes. Currently using a mix of Phillips, RCA's and Mullards with RCA 845's. All vintage NOS tubes.
Speakers:	ProAc Studio Towers using ScanSpeak tweeter and ATC mid and bass units. Corssovers have been taken out of the box, and redone by hand using better quality components, and tri wired.
Interconnects:	Goertz Silver Sapphire, Discovery Plus Fours.

Peter's comments about his System:

AA: "Peter, how would you describe your system's sound?"
PH: "The system is very musical, with incredible detail and absolutely no listener fatigue."
AA:  "What are the system's strengths?"
PH:  "Well, firstly it's tube and I love tubes - they glow in the dark!  It is powerful enough to drive my 88dB/watt ProAc, and it allows me to tweak, the blissful pastime of all tube lovers.  I have tried most tubes, but keep coming back to NOS Philips, RCA and Sylvania tubes.  And they are expensive!"
AA: "Do you think there is room for improvement?"
PH: "Yes.  Sometimes the power is not quite enough for big band and rock music." 
AA: "Have you got plans for upgrading?"
PH: "Yes.  I am still looking at isolation and vibration absorption tweaks.  I use bicycle tubes, focal pods, and the power and preamps are now filled with plumber's lead glued to the base.  This seems to prevent microphonics and cleans up the sound.  The preamp kit could be improved with some superior components/resistors, capacitors and this is an area I hope to explore next year."