Any of you have experience with this kit? It looks to be an excellent amp.

• Audio Electronic AE-25 Kit

I have not built or heard the AES Superamp, but as I'm sure you know AES is the kit/parts division of Cary Audio, run by Dennis Had, who has been highly respected in the audio field, particularly for his SET designs, for years. Cary and AES have excellent reputations for customer service -- I don't think I've ever seen a bad word written about them. I remember seeing some good reviews of the Superamp when it first appeared, and some of them appear at http://www.superamp.com .

I did build another AES product, the PH-1 phonostage, which has performed flawlessly and excellently for years with my Rega Planar 3. The assembly manual was thorough, with step-by-step verbal and visual instructions. The PH-1 uses point-to-point wiring, and I believe the Superamp does the same. That means it is not as easy to build as a PCB-based design, but if you go slow and enjoy the building process, rather than rushing to completion, you should do just fine.

Parenthetically, it looks like the PH-1 has changed slightly over the years. The version I built has a selector knob at the front that allows the user to select 1K, 22K, 47K or 68K loading. The current version appears to omit the selector switch and provides 47K loading only. Wiring up that switch was the hardest part of the kit (at least for these fat fingers), and I suspect that was the reason it was eliminated. That said, I'm very lazy and have generally left the loading at 47K and have never done careful listening tests for differences among the different positions.

Unfortunately, I have not heard Doc's Seduction, so I can't compare the two units. All I can tell you is that I've been very happy with my PH-1. Most of my albums are 25 to 35 years old, bought when I was listening to rock of the Jimi-Janis-Cream-FZ variety in high school and college. Luckily, I always treated them with care, and they sound a hell of a lot better now than they did back then!