Amplification
I dreamed, in my youth, of having a fancy hi-fi system like the ones I saw in catalogues and magazines. Only in my later thirties did I acquire most of the requisite components, and even then another long while passed before I finally set up, in time-honoured fashion, a turntable, CD player and tuner all wired together via an amplifier to some speakers. By that point, streaming was already becoming the norm, and the set-up I'd wanted for so long was somewhat passé. Despite that, I've stuck stubbornly with this old-fangled approach over the past decade. While generally unable, financially, to stray too far from the entry-level, I've been happy enough making do with the lower-end and the second-hand. Fortunately, I haven't been cursed with an audiophile's ear: my hearing, never the most acute, is worsening with age, aggravated by the continual ringing of tinnitus.
The weakest link in my hi-fi chain has tended to be the amplifier. Lately, the early '00s Rotel amp I'd bought post-pandemic had been showing every sign of giving up the ghost. I didn't feel it was worth getting it fixed, and pondered obtaining something new for once, before eventually settling for a pre-enjoyed Rega Brio-R (Fig. 7). This was a model launched in 2011, so presumably the one I ordered (which arrived on Thursday) must be about 10-14 years old. It appears, at least, to have been well looked-after. Several enthusiastic on-line reviews of the model had reassured me that I'd made a decent choice; as, meanwhile, the viewpoints of detractors in forum posts provoked doubts.
It's a compact unit with a bare minimum of controls: two buttons and a volume knob. Despite the uncluttered facade, its designers somehow managed to make the layout look a little awkward. I'm not sold, moreover, on the company logotype below the on/off button that's illuminated by a red LED. To my eye the latest iteration of the Brio looks neater. All of that is academic of course, as I'm listening to the thing and not looking at it. Whatever its objective merits may be, I'm finding it makes most of my music sound good enough, and that it suits my modest needs well enough. It would be nice if it keeps working a bit longer than the last one.
Another outmoded phenomenon: the Christmas card. I still send a couple of dozen of them every year, and receive a similar number. The first of this year's reached me on Saturday, after I'd sent out an initial batch to overseas recipients the weekend before.