Hello to all and thank you for having me on this forum. I have been lurking for some time but am now just getting serious about DIY electronics. My past experience involves loudspeaker building, reviving old thrift store finds and repairing appliance boards but I am in no way a tech. As a lover of music though I have always owned a decent system. I own more recordings than electronics but I have prudently collected, and sold, quite a few over the years (I wish I had those Cornwalls and LaScallas back, not to mention that pair of Altec 200W tube amps-who knew?(I was young and that stuff was old. Parenthesis within parenthesis-I should probably break out Brown's)) and would like to learn how to do board level diagnostics and repairs. Though most times way over my head I am amazed by the knowledge, talent and generosity of the members here, not to mention the overall civility of discourse. Thank you for that. One problem I have is that I used to be rich and now I am poor. I used to be able to walk into a high-end audio store and actually walk out with something. My last experience however was less than satisfactory. I wanted American made components but the 3k$ tube integrated from Pennsylvania failed so many times I sat it on a shelf and plugged in an old Yamaha integrated (I'm really a Suzuki/Pops Yoshimura kinda' guy). After the Rotel 855 cd drawer failed I fixed it but when that fix failed I just took the cover off and made a top-loader out of it. East Texas in a nutshell. I rolled up those Kimber speaker wires and replaced them with a twisted pair of 10ga. magnet wire my motor winder gave me. The Magnepan 1.6's from the same buy however have been one of the best purchases I have ever made and I am hooked on the planar dipole sound. Long story short my electronics are old and failing, I am old and failing, but hell, I can still do better than that and if not I have a good excuse. I have been looking through here for a gutsy high-current solid state amp design to drive these Maggies and what I have found so far that seems to fit the bill is the Wolverine but I would welcome any suggestions for an amp that will actually drive a 2 ohm load, one that I can afford and one that can deliver the performance I am used to. I am an old bachelor so I don't care if it looks like an ice chest as long as it works. I figure if I recycle some of these transformers and use some of these nice nos parts on hand I can do it for a thousand bucks and I really don't want to sell my only child into slavery to buy an overpriced glitz box that cost less than the crate it's shipped in 'cause they know UPS will be lugging the thing back in and drop it on the floor from waist height. (Okay-that might be an exaggeration but with poverty comes bitterness and I have actual experience, perhaps because it was delivered to a machine shop). Enough proselytizing though. In my limited time here I have gained much and hope to actually be able to contribute in the future. You are some fine folks-keep up the good work.