Bookshelf Speakers - Musical Fidelity A300 & Rock

I hear you on budget... You know what's funny though?? I never thought I would be "foolish" enough to spend more than a hundred bucks on cable, and as of right now I own a pair of Analysis Plus Silver Ovals speaker cables and Analysis Plus Solo Crystal interconnects, both of which are a bit more than a hundred bucks. I never thought I'd spend more than a few hundred on a CD Player and I ended up buying a Simaudio Moon Nova LE player.

This is a sick hobby I'll tell you...but I'm happy with the music so who cares right? Its about the only hobby I got too...

Right now I'm in the process of moving into a new house, so as soon as I do, I'll try to post my system and some pictures of it(probably about a month from now). I'm really happy to hear you're happy with your system. Right now I can't listen to music at all, everything is packed and plus I live in Orlando, Florida, and we've been dealing with a whole bunch of hurricanes this season. So every time one comes around I disconnect everything and put it in a safe place.

Anyway, great to hear you're enjoying the new speakers. I know you ordered the African Hazlewood ones, but is that Cherry finish beautiful or what?? Maybe I place too much emphasis on looks, but I don't want my speakers to embarrass my living room, specially not when I move into the new house.

Florida - man, you guys have gotten slammed this year haven't you! I'm right outside Charlotte, NC and we've been getting the remnants of all the hurricanes - I can't ever remember a season like this.

You're right - for the longest time I was never willing to spend more than a set amount for equipment - keeping me mostly confined to the "big-box" stores. Then along comes Audiogon and I'm able to pick up great quality used gear. The Musical Fidelity amp I just got I would never have been able to afford had I not picked it up used.

I've got a wife and kids to take care of and the money doesn't flow as freely into the hobbies as it used to. Thankfully, I've gotten quite good at buying and selling rare rock records, so PayPal has become my "slush-fund" for records and equipment.

At any rate - I'm looking at replacing my interconnects and cables next. I've wiped out my "fund" with these speakers, but as soon as I've got some more built up I'll be looking at cables. I've got the mid-line Monster stuff now (400 MKII interconnects and XP speaker cable with Monster banana terminators) that I've had for years. I've been looking at the Signal Cables and the Rapport line.

The guy that sold me the VR-1's really talked up the Rapport cables and they're priced about the same as Signal - just a bit more.

As for colors - you're right, the Cherry finish is very nice on the VR-1's; I really liked the African Hazlewood though. Van Schweikert does a great job with the finish work - very important when it comes to keeping peace within the family!

I hear you. I suppose I'm lucky as I am not married yet. I do get some grief from my girlfriend about how weird I am buying cables and stuff like that. Anyway she doesn't give me a hard time about spending (probably cause we ain't married) but she does comments on components that are less than aesthetically pleasing. So having speakers that are nicely finish is great for keeping peace as you say.

Speakers are such a visually imposing piece of furniture(no matter how small they are) that they have to be nicely finished if I'm going to buy them. Specially now that I'm buying a new house and I want it to look at least half way decent.