u/AmazingPangolin9315

On my journey to broaden my rum horizon I've been looking at buying a bottle of Foursquare, inspired by the many favourable mentions in this sub. I am however a little bit confused by the pricing which I'm seeing locally here in London, and I was wondering if someone could shed some light at what is driving these price differences.

For example, prices start at just under £100 for Penultimus, Mandamus, Convocation, etc. then go up to just under £200 for Equipoise, Isonomy, or Shibboleth, via £350 for Raconteur or Sassafras and end at £700 for Destino. What causes the prices to go from single to double, and to 7x at the extreme end? Is it just scarcity, or is there a marked difference in quality? And how does one choose between the 29 different varieties on offer in this particular shop?

https://preview.redd.it/oh8tapcefazg1.jpg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3efb04aa6b00123c9f8b1537e2991e93d7aa1be4

Found this during a trip to the continent in a French supermarket, priced at €17. Seems to be going for £45-£49 in the usual shops here in the UK.

I'm not a big white rum drinker, but I was intrigued by the single parcel bit on the label... 😄 I'll have a sip tonight, worst case it'll go into cocktails.

I have a pair of Lean Dean which I bought a few years ago and which are easily my favourite pair of jeans. I was looking at the Nudie website just now thinking of buying another pair, but literally every Lean Dean model listed on the site is made with stretch denim. And I really really do not like stretch denim.

Any chance of a Lean Dean model in rigid denim in the future, or is non-stretch now only offered on Steady Eddie and looser cuts?

My current system is quite old and having recently moved into a bigger flat I'm considering my options in terms of upgrades. Current system is PCM DB1+, Sony TA-F670ES, Sony CDP-X222ES, Pro-ject Debut III S/E3. Room dimensions are 6.48m x 5.82m (21'3" x 19'1") although I only use a quarter of the room as my "listening corner".

I know that I need to do a whole lot of listening to narrow down speaker choice, but one of the options I was contemplating was to go with a pair of active speakers. I've seen for example a pair of Genelec 1037C going for not a lot of money not to far from where I live. Not saying I necessarily will end up buying them, but it sent me down the rabbit hole of preamp choice for an active speaker setup. Ideally with some form of room correction built in, but I'll also consider having the room correction and DAC as separate devices and a fully analog preamp.

I've come across the NAD C658 and the MiniDSP SHD as possible options, but I keep thinking there must be more on the market than these two. What am I not seeing?

Location: London, UK.

Budget: Ideally sub-£1000, but flexible within reason. Happy to consider second-hand.