I've been missing from the forum for some time now and, if I'm being honest, it was probably this forum that helped me into self-imposed music and hi-fi exile.
I realised some time ago that my addiction to all things 'hi-fi' was not doing me a whole lot of good, I am one of lifes tweakers and not just those little things to make your turntable sound better (or not!) but substantial system changing and never quite being satisfied. I am the first to admit that I am quite happy to buy things on a whim and hope for the best that it will gel with the rest of my system but obviously this 'trial and error' mentality is not good for your wallet. I am lucky that my wife is understanding but even she has her limits.
One of my biggest problems was vinyl, I have had more turntables than some people have had hot dinners and as much as I love vinyl I came to the conclusion that it was high maintenance, high cost and the quality could be very hit and miss. As much as I enjoyed the 'idea' of vinyl, I was investing more than I was getting back so I made the decision to sell my vinyl, turntable, amps, speakers, in fact the whole lot. My wife looked on in horror as over 300 albums went on ebay suggesting that I might regret this decision, well 6 months on I can safely say that I do not.
Effectively I had hit the reset button, now I was back to factory settings I was going to take a break and make a less subjective decision about what I wanted from my music...maybe.
About a month ago I decided that the only medium that was going to work for me was digital streaming, I've had a few streamers in the past and looking back I realise that I listened to music them more through them than I ever did with vinyl. On top of this my wife and daughters are Spotify fans so they were already in the digital world and for me it was as much about not spending for the next best thing and having a system we could all use rather than 'that's dads'.
I gave myself a budget of £850.00 and bought a Mac Mini running Audirvana software, a Meridian Explorer DAC running into my longstanding AKG K551s.
For the amplifier I bought a second-hand NAD 320BEE of ebay for £100 and a pair of new Boston Acoustics A26 speakers for half-price.
I've had been running this setup for a few weeks and 'everyone' is happy. I do have plans for a DAC change in the future but I now feel under no pressure to get it because I have to.
My initial plan was to buy the Bitzie but my budget would not stretch to that and the Mac so I made a logical choice to 'save up' for a Bitzie or even a Majestic so when I do actually have the funds I will then entertain the idea of purchase secure in the knowledge that I can loan one and be happy in my choice before I buy (surely the whole point of the loaner programme?). I feel I have now broken the vicious circle I found myself in and enjoy music again.
Apologies if I've broken any house rules by mentioning a particular product(s) but since my first choice was evident I thought I might just get away with it
As to why this forum helped put me into self-imposed exile? Well, for one thing, I was sure of since the day I joined was that I was dealing with people with no axes to grind, talking about something they have a passion for and it became obvious to me that I could go away for a 'bit' and I would be welcomed back. This can be the opposite with some other forums where if you don't make a comment at least once a day then the friendliness is gone (if it was ever really there in the first place).
Anyway, enough of my rambling..........

It sometimes can reach the point where you can't see the wood for the trees and if you make the mistake of reading some of the hi-fi magazines the marketeers there will have you believe you simply can't do without the latest gizmo with its 5 star rating. 

I purchased a Squeezebox Touch a couple of years ago with a view to starting a steaming system and then 12 months ago got Inspire to upgrade my 26 year old turntable. A change from MM to MC with a couple of phono stage upgrades in between means I'm now enjoying vinyl once again and the Touch is still in its box unused. I've bought a load of second hand vinyl from another forum member and will be collecting a further supply in a week's time along with some of his old electronics to integrate into my same brand system. Yes, vinyl is high maintenance but I'm appreciating the benefits at the moment and considering the addition of an Elevator EXP.

On the other hand I spent 3 hours listening to some of the same music that I'd just bought but streamed through his new Majestic + Propius set up and was most impressed! 

It's that continuing quest...   

I've certainly bought more vinyl this year than cds. Still on a digital note but straying way from music I've got about 2000 35mm transparancies some of which have been scanned into jpeg files but I sent them away to be done professionally.  Many have since found their way into a publication which is why quality was important but it's also expensive.  I'm just about to start on some of the others plus 35mm black and white negatives and would welcome your experience on the effectiveness of scanners, there seems to be many available online but...     

The Rotel RCD-965BX was a landmark player and showed the potential of digital replay at an 'affordable' price point, even better with the Discrete upgrade. Until that time I'd wondered what the fuss was all about. I've still got mine which is pressed back into service on the odd occasion when the main player is out of action.