I’m not sure I’d be buying from Richer Sounds, not because their stuff is particularly bad but because I’ve had much better experience buying locally used. Ebay and the HI FI forums are much better sources than buying new. I had a Yamaha surround system with some amazing old KEF speakers that sounded quite decent and, a good few years ago, decided it was upgrade time. I managed to get hold of some Bowers & Wilkins floor standers which are an improvement on the KEFs but costs over twice as much. I then got hold of a Lynn Kolektor Pre amp which takes the TV feed through a little box I got for taking optical output and converting it, that box also has bluetooth ability. Then I found quite a meaty AMC 4 channel that could be bridged to a 2 channel with enough go to properly power the B&Ws, now everything sings and the stage is huge, even with everything in a corner. Once we get around to moving the front room around, it’ll have some proper space to it and I imagine the stage will be even wider. It’s already hysterical watching the dog react to animals from the speakers.
Whils’t I agree to a point, seperates will always be better, Mike is looking for a mini/micro hifi system with bookshelf speakers, he also likes shop guarantees 🙂
Then comes budget and how much of a auiophile Mike is or maybe a casual listener, even so there are some excellent mini/micro systems available at a price point.