Of course, the vinyl experience encompasses more than just sound quality. There are all those enjoyable little rituals – removing the disc from its sleeve, wiping the surface, cleaning the stylus, cueing the arm. Playing LPs is a very 'hands-on' personal thing. Because you're part of the process, you're more involved.

And there's something else. When you play an LP – especially a vintage original – something intangible happens. Your listening experience changes. It's almost as if the living, breathing aura of the musicians permeates the LP sleeve and grooves, making the music sound and feel different. Fanciful, perhaps – but often, that's how it seems as the stylus touches down…

The Caliburn/Cobra/Castellan is an exceptional combination, producing results far greater than the sum of its parts. It offers outstanding focus and solidity, allied to incredible detail and stunning dimensionality. Of course, it costs a bomb. But you definitely get what you pay for.

Value is a tricky subject. A product that offers class-leading standards of performance, a genuine pride of ownership, plus an exceptional finish and battleship build quality can be said to offer good value even if its price is very high. And anyway, how do you define 'expensive'? Aston Martin recently launched its one-77 sports car in Geneva – at a cool £1.25m, it makes the cost of a Caliburn look like small change.

But equipment like the Caliburn is worth celebrating. Yes it's expensive, but it also sets standards. It takes a certain dedication to the cause to push the theoretical performance limits of a format beyond typical price constraints.

And as Dr Murugasu says in our Q&A, the quest for absolute perfection was only limited by the restricted amount of exotic materials his team could get their hands on. Will anybody else put this much effort into finding perfection ever again?

The Caliburn is for life. It's not inexpensive, but how do you value a lifetime's pleasure and enjoyment?