Many thanks to all. When I am feeling brave, I will give it a go!

On my BM6000 (80's one) the volume control is a lot dimmer at one end, the full volume end. I see on the circuit diagram in the service manual there are two lamps for this, one at each end I presume. Therefore I reckon that there is a blown bulb on mine. Does any one have any experiance of changing these or know if it is a tricky job. If its too

The BM5000 is a much better amp than the 4500 but I am not 100% sure you can use the BL1000 with it. The 4500 is a much prettier design and will be easier to connect up to other pieces of equipment. In my opinion I would go with the 4500 or even use the 7002 as they are very underated and will probabley sound nicer than the 4500.

Also for me (and many others) if you make a paper aeroplane it does tend to look more like concorde than any other plane, so i must be simple

The 2cv is certainly allowed. I was going to say Concorde. It wasnt designed to be beautiful but the best design for the job in hand had a byproduct that was beauty. Also if you gave a small child the same design breif (a super fast plane for the rich and famous) you would probably end up with more or less the same shape!

I was more after things that are simple. Just items which are produced to do a job and end up beautiful as an afterthought. The London tube map is an example. Produced to be simple and easy to understand with no thought for decoration and now considered to be an all time classic piece of design.

I thought I would start a thread on what people consider to be design classics but I would like people to keep their suggestions in the realms of the real world so dont go saying a £30,000 coffee table. What I am looking for are those things which look perfect for the task they were designed to do and do that task perfectly. I will start it off

I would say a CDX. I have one with my BM6000 which is very similar to the 4400 and it sounds superb. I have had a CD7000 connected to it but the CDX sounds a lot better and also the looks will be more in keeping with your amp.

Thats what I was hoping to hear. I take it a Bl7000 would work the BC2300 though.

Its type no. is 2617 so according to the product info page its 2 way. Should it respond to an MCP or are they not compatable