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Like many HiFi manufacturers with a bigger advertising budget than R&D budget there would be nothing wrong with the Bose product range if it were priced anywhere near it's build and sound quality level. They are not the only culprits but sadly it's another case of a HiFi example of the Emperors new clothes.

You might find the AT a tad bright compared to the Dynavector

Audiotechnica still do a cheap T4P cartridge, can't remember the part number so perhaps someone can chime in with it but if you search T4P on ebay I'm sure it will come up.

What he said, Once you've heard some proper Hi-Fi you'll understand why Bose isn't considered to be exactly high fidelity, but what you have is a start and everyone has to start somewhere. As long as you're enjoying your music that's all that matters really, the road to Hi-Fi Nirvana is a never ending, expensive, addictive, lifelong one, the downside being you either have the young ears, or the money to exploit it but rarely both.

If the amp is new send it back as a warranty issue, if it's not by the looks of the thread you haven't had it long so have a word with the seller. Modern amps are pretty well protected but make sure you haven't done anything silly connection wise like not fitting the shorting links properly or having uninsulated cables that can short momentarily.

one point though, with the 1009 being an idler wheel deck it will be worth saving if it's time and minimal money that you need to invest, they don't have a great value but can produce some very nice sounds when working properly.

It depends where the problem is, if its at either end then provided there is enough spare wire it's just a re-terminate provided you are comfortable with soldering and wire terminating, if it's inside as in the insulation breaking down or the internal earth connection then it's a bit more daunting, arms are pretty easy to rewire as you just use the old to pull in the new but it can be quite fiddly. A dirty earth connection is most likely and is possibly no more than the arm earth connection breaking so earth is trying to make a path through the bearings which is inconsistent and where the noise is coming from. usually there is a 5th wire in the arm wiring which fixes to the arm tube or bearing body somewhere and this is usually the connection that breaks, again this is quite easy to test with a multimeter. Upgrading the wire inside an arm is generally a very cheap but fiddly upgrade, it just depends how practical and competent you are, so if you do end up needing to do it just keep in mind that if you norse it up you will need a new arm or complete turntable if the arm is not replaceable.

Should have had a look at the ebay link myself, looks like a spekon type input so meant to be driven from a desk but a normal pre should drive the system fine, I wouldn't want to be too far from them or have them too far apart but looks to be quite nicely made. As Slinch says for free they can't be bad and are worth spending a bit on plugs and leads to see what they perform like.

Drive them with a nice little valve pre and I bet it will sound quite nice

are they powered monitors or passive? and are they near field or stage monitors? either way if they sound nice use them. There are quite a few speakers that were designed by the BBC here in the UK as near-field and mobile broadcast monitors that cause certain parts of the hifi fraternity to have kittens so there's nothing wrong with using monitors as home speakers if they are good quality

Playing my LP now, I'm an A in the UK

Discogs, that's what I did when I catalogued mine for the insurance man, took bloody weeks and I still have the twitch. It did scare the bejezus out of me to find out how much it was all worth though and there were quite a few surprises value wise in both directions. Although the wife disagrees that I am now a genius at speculating on the future value of my records because of all the crap I have bought on a whim that is worth bugger all and that is doesn't justify the amount I am still spending on records, personally I think she's completely hatstand and refuse to listen.

you need to find out if the amp or cabling is causing it rather than the speaker so try swapping the speakers around and see if the noise stays with the speaker. either way nothing should hum or buzz

a bad earth or bad or dirty connections in the arm wiring seem the most likely. or the arm wiring insulation may have broken down so it is shorting on the arm tube. You can check this if you have a multimeter and know how to use it.

If it hasn't got a cart stay well away, they are difficult to get and expensive. B&O kit is a but Marmite, you either like it or not there's usually not a lot of middle ground. Iv'e always found it to be a great example of form over function where it looks a lot better than it works, a bit like Bose, the emperors new clothes. Here in the UK until recently B&O was plentiful and cheap so over the years I've tried a lot of their output and have been impressed by very little of it, you could pick up B&O turntables for penny's but now the style gurus like to look at them, that or people are falling for the hype as the prices have climbed to the point where you can pick up a lot better for a lot less money.

The 881s was the top or near the top of the line from Stanton with the s signifying the type of stylus, there are replacement stylus about and I don't think they are expensive. The 881s was based on a Pickering XSV3000 and I understand the styli are interchangeable but the Pickering one is inferior There is an article covering the 881s here http://www.regonaudio.com/Stanton881AudioTechnicaATML70.html All that said that cart is way below the sort of thing that arm and turntable was aimed at, It will get you going though so a new stylus would be a good purchase and you will know you can upgrade later. The Stanton is a MM cart and your turntable is more than capable of running with some very exotic and expensive MC cartridges.

I expect it will all be fine and a couple of beers cures most aberrations of the mind I find, but if you want a little insurance and If you bought it all from the same place, It might be worth an email just politely laying it out with your concern about the warranty on your other items running down because of your extended wait for a replacement tweeter. Even if they don't offer to extend your warranty you have something in writing to push up the line to the manufacturer if needed

Some carts are very sensitive to VTA adjustments, I've not tried the Ortofon's but I have quite a few different carts that the 2mm would make quite a difference. Any decent cartridge and stylus are a precision transducer and very small calibration errors can make a lot of difference. The way the stylus navigates the groove is important so adjusting the VTA will adjust the whole tonal balance, one way it will be brighter and the other will be muddier, the image presentation will also go out.

+1 on the above, what you have their is a superb front end to any system. What cartridge has your Micro got in it? It's a stunning turntable so deserves a suitably good MC cartridge and phono stage. Mine had an Entre in it I think which was quite common with the ones that came here I understand and suited it quite well but the turntable itself can easily cope with better. Luxman amplification is the obvious choice or Accuphase if going for in period. or on another thought I run an all valve (tube) system and the Micro was very happy running into that so you could explore that avenue if it took your fancy. Either way you can feel comfortable that you will have to spend a lot on the rest of the system to embarrass that turntable.

Same here but i'm hoping for a bit better than a few weeks.

Electrolytic caps don't need 25 years sometimes, especially the bigger ones.

I would think most in walls were geared toward AV rather than 2 channel and when I have been looking for AV kit be it amps or whatever I have always found makers known more for 2 channel than AV tend to make more musical sounding equipment. I've not heard many in walls and what I have heard were not great, I have heard some good reports about the Kef Ci130 and Monitor Audio W280 in wall speakers though, not sure if they are available to test or cost effective where you are though.

Proper Micro's are the dogs bollocks when it comes to Japanese audio and as JumpingBean says run, in fact borrow a very fast car and make sure you don't stop on any reds. The DD40 is definitely a proper Micro and the MA505 is a gorgeous arm and the whole package is superb, it's only a pity we didn't get so many here in the UK

Brandon Slinch and 3arl are spot on and both of the above answer your question perfectly, if you can afford it spend the money and do it properly as it will reward you as you get more music out of your records, but if money is tight you could go the vintage route from thrift stores and the like, the only real downside here is it needs much more research than buying new, on the upside though if you do buy a pup from a thrift store it's a lot less expensive lesson.

More than likely this