Not a nostalgia thing, certainly an economic thing, for sure a quality thing.
It seems to be still possible to buy and build decent electronics kits (Bottlehead, Welborne Labs, etc.). Generally very high quality offerings. Speakers are another matter. In an era when speaker prices, at the high end at least, can be grotesquely inflated, there should be vast potential savings in buying well engineered high quality designs where you build your own cabinets. And by that I mean off the shelf kits like the electronics kits.
I know of exactly one, the Hammer Dynamics Super 12 design I built. While it is a niche product - but so are most of the things we deal with on this site - it is at the top of the quality heap in its field. I would like to see more of this going on. The offerings from Parts Express and the like are fine, but I am talking about the best available components and engineering.
We all know why such kits are rare. No one will get rich selling a fairly priced kit with $600 to say $4000 worth of components. Selling the same thing in a cabinet for $25000 will. In the case of my speakers it was a labor of love by a talented individual working in literal isolation in the wilds of New Mexico. He perceived a need, had great ears and spent five years developing the product. Then he made it available for close to cost.
I am not looking for the big players to do this. Our beloved JBL has gone in the opposite direction, making the best components unavailable except as replacements for factory built units.
Nothing to be done about it, I just wish another John Wyckoff would come down the pike.
I wasn't quite truthful. I do miss the heady days when Heath, Knight and Dynaco offered everything from crystal sets to top quality amps and tuners in cheap kit form. I still have a Heath engine tuneup device. And I wish I still had the Knight crystal set. It was the first thing my Dad helped me build. It taught me to solder and it worked wonderfully. I discovered real, honest music through many DX late nights. I still don't sleep much at night, trying to recreate the vibe with music I now play through my system.
A guy would have to be nuts not to miss that.
Clark