20 years in the making - my Cyrus/Arcam/Mission system

My dad used to have a great B&O system at home when I was growing up and I saved up my pennies from my paper round to buy an Ariston Q deck from Acoustic Arts in Watford, which opened up just a few doors down from where we lived. Around about the same time I stafted reading What Hi Fi and over the years have followed the reviews and enjoyed some great kit. As a student I saved up for the Rotel RCD 965BX back in the days when CD was relatively new and the debate about bitstream vs multibit was raging. Added a DPA PDM1 series 2 and was in hi fi heaven. Fell for a Sony CDP 3000ES and then for the Micromega Stage 4 which served in my main system until just last year when I could not resist the tempatation to buy the Cyrus CD8 SE.

I had a Roksan Caspian amp for a while but never warmed to it (it was an early model) and swapped it out for a multi channel Yamaha and  bobby basic Toshiba DVD as my attention turned towards home cinema. I moved on to an Arcam AVR300, loved it so much that I eventually went for an Arcam AV9/P7 which I don't plan on changing any time soon.

 My £25 second hand Sony speakers were replaced by Mission 733i's which served me well for many years and were eventually replaced by 782s. Then I upgraded to the  excellent 782SE's (Wow, enjoyment reached a whole new level) and eventually added the 780SE's as rears and got the matching centre. Subwoofer came later, when I picked up a Mission E8AS1. Then I was seduced by the awesome sound of the Mission Elegante range and swapped for the E83's/E81's/E8C & E8AS2 (not widely reviewed, but absolutely amazing).

For a long time I had a Grundig 32"CRT, but when my lovely wife suggested a flat screen was required I quickly obliged and picked up the Sony KDL 40 W2000. She was a bit unhappy when she saw the size of the box and I didn't actually get it out and set it up for 2 months, to allow for a cooling off period. All because she fell asleep in the car when we went to the Sony Centre and didn't come in (to be fair, she was heavily pregnant at the time). I also picked up a Sony HD/DVD recorder.

Other bits and pieces. Somewhere along the line I purchased the Isotek GII Minisub and having started out with Supra LoRad2.5 power leads I have replaced almost all of them with VdH Mainstreams. (If anybody knows anyone who can terminate one of these cables with a high current IEC I'd like to hear from you). I bi-amp the fronts with QED XT400 and use VdH interconnects between the amps (D102 Mk III), I also use the VdH First Ultimate to connect my CD player. Just added the PSX-R which makes a big difference in the system and has had me up late listening the last few nights!

 Two young children mean that the speakers have to sit in the corners, which is not ideal, but is a compromise on safety grounds.  I am saving up for a projector (possibly a JVC, and a blu ray, but I'm not sure what to go for?,...must have multi channel out's though). Any comments or suggestions are  most welcome.

 Thanks for reading my story, hope you like the pictures.