This is my listening room, which my two-year-old daughter has dubbed, "Dad's Basement." It's a shared, multi-purpose room, but it's definitely used mostly for listening these days.

I've historically been more attracted to the music discovery side of the hobby. I got my first turntable at 17—which is still in service today—and paired it with various budget vintage receivers, integrated amps, and loudspeakers. Whatever would play the music.

Fast forward 20 years and I've started taking more of an interest in the gear, through these forums, blogs, magazines, YouTube videos, and podcasts. Over the course of the last year, I've done a lot of lurking and learning and upgraded many of my components based on that research.

My objective was to assemble a system that could give me a taste of what hifi audio could sound like, and arrange things in such a way that would give me flexibility to upgrade individual components over time as needed.

I don't think I'll ever get to the level of many of the systems I see on here, but I'm liking the way it sounds. And most importantly, I'm listening to way more music. In a very unexpected way, shifting my focus to gear has made me rediscover my love for music.