One of my favorite old records from the early 60's was the original "Peter
Gunn" LP. Played back, at that time, on a Garard tt & cartridge, EICO tubed
HF-30 (30 W mono-built from kit) and (Gordon Holt would hate this) Karlson
speaker enclosure containing the best available 12" combo Ratshack speaker
(again home-built from kit form). Total cost? About $200 at the time. It
took a lot of leaf-raking, lawn-mowing, and paper-delivering to pay for it
as a tenth grader. But it was worth it. It lasted decades (with just a few
tube changes and "pot" cleanings) and got me "started" :0).