"Anthony Edwards" wrote

My first set of loudspeakers, when I was a young teenager, were
built by my father from a kit (this was in the early 1970s and kit
building was very common then), as was my amplifier, a Mullard Unilex.
They were absolutely superb, and outperformed most other loudspeakers
that I heard, including the (I believe Rogers or Harbeth) loudspeakers
in the music room at our school.


This is most interesting - I'm an absolute convert to kit-building, having
managed to throw a WAD kit together myself with great success and, more
importantly, maintain it despite having bugger-all knowledge and experience!

The important thing, other than the obvious personal satisfaction and
'emotional attachment' to the amp (fruit of my own soldering iron kinda
thing :-), is that it really is a very good-sounding amp anyway. Also, it
cost about a quarter of an equivalent 'ready made' amp with a fancy name on
it and still less than half the price of an Oriental cheapie. I think kits
are on the up atm and would encourage just about anyone to give one a go.

Was your own gear particularly 'special' because your father had built it or
was that just too commonplace practice those days?

(Needless to say, my own kit amp is most definitely not in my planned
'amplifier cull'!! :-)