Manticore Mantra and the eBay Addiction Cured...

Ever since purchasing a couple of Chinese Coins for my sons 18th birthday and trying to sell my Psion 3a I have become addicted to the eBay site. Mostly bidding for some Minolta prime lenses for my Sony DSLR-A200 (finally won an auction on a 28mm f2.8 prime yesterday...yipee!!) and other photographic accessories.

In scouring the loft to find some more items to sell on eBay to fund my addiction my eyes alighted on my old HiFi which had been in the attic, boxed and unloved, for many years. So I got it down from the attic and set it up to check it all worked today. The full setup is as follows:

Manticore Mantra record deck equipped with an Alphason Xenon tonearm and an A&R Cambridge P77 cartridge

Audiolab A8000 amplifier

Gale speakers on sand filled metal stands (can't find the spikes yet)

Rotel RCD-945AX CD player

Rotel RT-850L Tuner

Well, despite being neglected for some many years it all worked perfectly (ah...quality British and Japanese engineering of years gone by). It was also a....REVELATION....I'd forgotten how wonderful and musical this system sounded, especially with vinyl.

So I sat there listening to the Cure and Genesis (not at the same time!) when my wife took pity on me and I suggested that instead of selling it all on eBay why did'nt we move it back down into the lounge and I could start reliving my youth by listening to my LP collection all over again. Bless her!