My Dad and I (mainly him) designed from scratch and built this integrated amp when I was in High School (circa 1976-77). He was a EE working at TRW at the time and I was contemplating following his career choice. He sketched the circuit from memory and hand drew the schematic. We etched the circuit boards, soldered the components, and built the oak cabinet all by hand.
I used the amp for the remainder of HS and at the USAF Academy once we were "allowed" stereo privileges. After graduating in 1982, the amp went into storage in my Dad's basement for the last ~28 years!
Sadly, my Dad died on 13 Dec 09. On a trip this month to help my Mom settle affairs I found the amp in the basement. Curious if it still worked, I plugged it in and the lights all illuminated. I did not have speakers to test it with, but took a chance and shipped it to my home in SC.
It arrived in perfect condition (whew) and I hooked it up to a pair of sacrificial lamb Radio Shack speakers and all went well. Now with some confidence, I hooked it to a pair of Def Tech PM1000s and used a Sansa MP3 player as a source. It sure sounds sweet to my ears, probably a lot of nostalgia involved, but sweet none the less!
Pics are in:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/album.php?albumid=9
Thanks for listening,
XEagleDriver