My uncle built a couple of Singer(?) mono amps. I started with a red and white record player in a box. Years later it was my turn to build. It started with the Hafler kits and then came being in a huge local record store that was playing DSOTM and I heard those footsteps walking across the store. Then building the Dynaco, Stereo 400. Speakers started with homemade, then ADS 400 speakers with a Velodyne sub, Bozak B’s, Duhlquist DQ-10’s, Acoustat Model X’s, a bunch of subwoofers I built,
And this was the seventies and eighties.