Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

^ the best way to do it
my first system was purchased that way
take something like OK Computer by Radiohead ( don't worry you can burn it afterwards ) to listen to
the quality of the recording on that CD is brilliant
you can then pick up the nuances in the music / fingers sliding down the frets / the little background accidental music to help you work out what is the best set up

or take your fave music and listen to what sounds the best
take a dance track with deep bass to test the bass etc
it really is possible to hear the differences with the set ups even with a budget set up.

Definitely.

I had a great time - I could quite happily have bought a few beers, ordered a pizza and spent the whole day in there. (And I think they'd have let me.)

The difference in the sound of the different systems/permutations of components is quite staggering - none of them bad sounding but some definitely pleased me more than others. There was quite a difference in cables though which I was surprised about.
In total, I tired 16 different combinations of equipment (and then the one I chose with the budget cables/interconnectors and then with slightly more expensive ones) with these songs:

Mastodon - The Wolf Is Loose (for something heavy)
Air - Kelly Watch The Stars (for the lovely warm synths)
Ciccone Youth - Into The Groovy (for a bit of lo-fi scuzz)
Willy Mason - What Is This? (for some nice warm guitar and vocals)
Talking Heads - Born Under Punches and This Must Be The Place (because Talking Heads and for the amazing production)
Black Eyed Peas - BEP Empire (from when they used to be good for deep bass )
LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yourself Clean (a terrible recording ripped from radio and then burned to CD to see how it coped with something that already sounded really bad)

They pretty much covered all the bases and I'm really pleased I took the time to actually listen to the equipment - If I'd bought it over the internet, I'd probably be pleased but now I know that I've got a better sounding system than I would have otherwise.

In the end, I've gone for the Marantz CD6004& PM6004 and a pair of Monitor Audio BX2 speakers. (Interconnects are Cambridge and speaker cables are QED.)

I'm just researching turntables now.... Oh God.