This is how a can of worms opens. A reader in Shepparton, Victoria, wants to buy his daughter a 'record player' for her 30th birthday and asks for suggestions. He nominates a budget of $1000. She has been brought up listening to dad's vinyl and loves it. I warn him that if she truly loves music I'm going to blow the budget because he really should be thinking about an amplifier, a turntable and a pair of speakers. I have certain standards.

There are lots of good stereo amps around from $500 or so. Yamaha's AS201 is a ripper. NAD starts its range with the C316BEE around $550, there's Denon's PMA520 at around $600. The choice of amp depends to some extent on the speakers; it needs to be powerful enough to drive them comfortably so he should take advice on this. She might like an amp with a radio tuner built in. Hi-fi folk call these receivers.

The Denon and Yamaha have a phono input which saves buying a separate phono pre-amp to boost signals from the turntable, otherwise she'll need a phono pre-amp between the turntable and the amplifier.

Speakers have by far the most influence on the system's sound and they'll cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars. As a starter I'm mightily impressed by Q Acoustics 3010s at $399 a pair. They're compact, good looking and great sounding.

Monitor Audio is doing some good ones around $500 and there are some gorgeous Italian Sonus Fabers for $700. It's a highly personal choice; when people start listening around they're amazed by how different speakers sound.