Created the boards from files right befor Halloween, and she came to life this past Friday night. The cheapie HK attenuators were replaced with GoldPoints, and I'm burning everything in with some budget JJ EL34.
Calamities:
1) The cheapie attenuators off eBay are a bargain - because they are crap, at least the ones from HongKong (AcidMilk). Unfortunately, I ordered good MONO attenuators from Taiwan (sweet Holco units), but, alas, this needs dual stereo. GoldPoints to the rescue - at ~$300. Total right (and wrong) attenuators - $450 & 3 weeks lost to waiting...
2) Finish the metal casework before mounting any electronics. In a panic, I had the wrong XLR connectors, and rather than pull the boards, I just drilled bigger holes, and vacumed out the shavings. WRONG! Some shavings mixed with a bit of excess thermal grease, and stuck to the bottom of a transistor - oh, well, nothing like 4 scorched 2sa1968, a handful of resistors and LEDs to take the wind outta the sails - well, and 20 fuses to help troubleshoot the problem.
3) Have good fortune to ask the right question at the precise right moment. The board files have a quirk with one of the standoff routings, where, after an hour or so of operation, the trace running too close by eats away the seperation, and things go south, quickly. By the grace of God, Alex asked Justin, and he warned about this - mere hours before disaster. Fiber insulators were inserted, and apocalyptic doomsday averted.
4) Have a good friend who is willing to QC your work and help determine WTF is wrong when all this happens. I was indeed lucky that Alex is close, and interested in this build. It really does take a village.
This was WAY more of a challenge than the Millett and m³ (x2) units I have built in the past, mainly because there was NO BOM (and yes, I do have a good one, finally), and the ultimate thanks go to Dr Gilmore for the fabulous tribute to the STAX T2, and to Justin, who stepped right to prevent a calamatous cluster with a boards design flaw.
Total cost: Well, for the parts actually used, ~$1500, and about $2k with fraud, waste, abuse, and rework.