Ok.... finally got some free time at the weekend. I started a new job 3 weeks ago and things have been super busy…

Hifi:

CD: Cambridge Audio are pretty reliable for this, although you may also want to look into an equivalent NAD.

What source do you use from the PC? Flac files are best.

Preamp: Never heard of Emotiva! Looks like a decent piece of kit though.

Amp: Huh, I didn’t even realise Tosh built hifi separates… or at least, used to? Do they still?

Speakers: Klipsch didn’t used to be a notewqorthy name in the UK, but I’ve seen them advertised quite a bit in recent years here. Apparently they are a very well regarded brand though. I like the continuous curved cone, just like my Q Acoustics 5000 series.

Headphones: You can’t go wrong with these sennheisers, but my dream is to some day own this electrostatic pair: https://staxheadphones.com/collections/earspeakers/products/sr-x9000

Electrostatic speakers are in a class of their own - the clarity has to be heard to be believed. I once heard a pair of Quad electrostatic speakers and it just sounded like the band were in the room with me.

Sennheiser do build electrostatic headphones but they are WAY out of my price range: https://uk.sennheiser-hearing.com/products/sennheiser-he-1

They come with their own dedicated tube amp! Man, I need to win the lottery…

Pretty fucking cool that you had a stepdad that actually built a badass pair of speakers for you. All my stepparents did was abuse me, but I digress…

Also, that tube amp is a steal for 300 bucks!! Holy moly. I really need a tube setup. I remember my woo audio amp I had in Canada was beautiful (https://wooaudio.com/amplifiers/wa6)

Regarding the PC build:

Pretty nice, I haven’t used a radeon for like 20 years and didn’t like it when I had it (the thermometer died after 18 months and so had to control the fan manually afterwards - it woke me up one night suddenly and sounded like boeing 747 in my bedroom as it defaulted to MAX). But hey, I’m assuming the RTX5070Ti was out of your budget. I would personally go for 64 GB RAM too, since your mobo will handle it and windows 11 is fucking shite (think about having a dual boot partition with linux mint).

This reminds me, I need to start planning my new gaming PC. I’ll maybe send you a link to my config when I have it ready. It’s gonna be hard on my savings account… and I might opt for aircon installation in my apartment before it.