[morzh]

Tim

From what I heard about the Chi-Fi small amp kits, they do work, and they work well enough.
A son of an old late friend from Russia picked some up, built them and was fairly pleased with the results.
This said, something in us, old-timers, has that idiosyncrasy towards all things Chinese, plus I do allow for the quality of the components, both tubes and the transformers, to be no necessarily at the very top.
Used with good sensitive speakers, I am sure most of us would not be able to tell the difference between these and any hi-end at the small power output. And even with those of us who used to have very good hearing (me, I was diagnosed with the "golden ear" (absolute hearing) when I was 8), the age does not improve upon it.
So most of it will be in our head and soul, both the decent enough sound quality and the satisfaction from "look what I've built!".

I own a McIntosh 375 and EICO HF22 as the output amps, and two McIntosh C22, one original and one today's build as the pre-amps.
Together with 2 pairs of Klipsch Cornwalls.
I have to say, I enjoy listening to them.
But if you ask my honest answer to whether or not I will be able top tell it from my old Kenwood run-of-the-mill solid state 1992 rack system, I won't lie to you - I dunno. I thought I heard the difference when I used Klipsches instead of the Kenwood towers, but that was 8 years ago. And even then I did not hear the difference between the amp, when hooked to the Klipsches.

So. Enjoy the process. This is what I enjoy most. The process. Of design, building, restoration, and hearing the result.
To me, this is the goal.
And, if you study your literature on the tube amps well, and spend the necessari minimum on good transformer and the tubes, it might actually be competitive.

Mike