On 26/10/17 14:35, Iain wrote:

Are there any modern audio products available in kit form other than speakers?

On eBay, loads of kits and preassembled assemblies. If you want to build
a bluetooth speaker, knock yourself out ;-)

I think that the fairly recent surge of interest in valve amps, killed off by cheap Chinese amplifiers with poor sound but fascinating pyrotechnics, was partly due to the fact that some people wanted to get their hands dirty, metaphorically speaking, even if only by adjusting the cathode bias:-)

Many tube/valve amps are wired point to point, so that the owner has little difficulty in replacing say the original cathode resistor with a low noise, 1% component, and enjoy the subsequent improvement which even the milkman commented upon:-)

Changing filtering components after a DAC, or modding its power supply
is the new equivalent, maybe?

It is probably the DIY bug in people that make them want to try exotic high-price speaker cables, and screened mains cables. This is probably the closest that many can get to building anything.

However some of that DIY is like the freak alternative medicine
overtaking plausible complementary, where the generic traditional is now
dispensed from the likes of Currys', and folks want to make their ears
feel a bit better :-)


There used to be an excellent mag called "Elektor" published in German and English. I wonder if it is still going?

Yup.
https://www.elektor.com/

Repurposing things into other things a.k.a. "a Hack" is of interest to
some, especially if recycling something that the industry would rather
have reduced back to its component chemicals or buried.

--
Adrian C