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DIY tube audio, domain of Asperger's freaks, showoff engineers and tedious cheapskates, is doomed to be swept away in a tide of cheap tat from China. Here's why:
Vendors: The first, most important, and most egregious problem with DIY is vendors, the people who sell you the stuff you need to build whatever it is you're hoping to build. Well, that's how they bill themselves, anyway. With some few exceptions, they suck noodles. Dealing with these paragons of ineptitude, sloth and venality, it is entirely possible to go from enthusiastic to despairing without ever passing go. You will be poorer too.
Top of my list goes to a certain Antipodean gentleman working from out of Schaffhausen, Switzerland, who has perfected the art of utterly destroying any enjoyment his victims, sorry, clients, might gain from buying his absurdly overpriced gear.
Then there is the well-known firm in Colorado that, like so many outfits that sell things online, still hasn't figured out what STOCK-KEEPING means. Oddly, this is the very same place in Colorado where a bunch of kids waded into their school with shotguns. I wonder why that is.
Or how about the stoner in Maryland who purports to sell turreted strips and boards who never answers his e-mail? I want what he's smoking.
Voodoo: Some can't get enough, apparently, but normal, mentally balanced people like me are quickly brought to the point of nausea by the flim-flam. Pet hates: Bybees. Vinyl demagnetising devices. Silver anything.
Prices: I think we all understand what the problem here is.
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Right now I have a phono preamp that doesn't amplifie enough in the right channel. Oh yeah, I also hate having to disconnect gear and get it out of my rack. In this case there's a passive preamp included too, so lots of wires to pull out every bloody time...
