I realized recently that my 2 favorite types of projects to do are:

1. 2 channel hi-fi. Vinyl, tubes, garden hose cables, etc. makes me happy. Even on the simpler side of things, it is great. Right before Christmas, an older couple called and said their Sony 300 CD changer had stopped working. At first, like normal, my head started going towards SONOS, NAS drive, etc....and get them into this millennium with their music collection. But then I remembered that we had some NOS Sony DVP777ES on the shelf. I gave them the option to buy one of those for dirt cheap, and they were so grateful. The wife had a 3 ring binder with an index of discs in the machine, and they were sorted by genre, and artist. They were super happy not to have to learn something new that they likely would not be able to figure out without headaches. I was thrilled because I got rid of one of those boat anchor 400 disc changers, no networking or firmware to deal with, no HDMI, no control system. I had so much time left after installing it, that I loaded all their CDs into the thing in the correct order, even though they insisted they could do it. I offered to take their defunct cassette deck in to get serviced, cleaned, lubed, etc., but they decided they did not use it anymore and declined.


2. Tearing out and replacing analog video systems. I do not know what it is about these. They are sometimes a PITA. Yesterday, I spent the day gutting a cabinet of gear in a theater room we did 10+ years ago. The pile of component video cables alone weighed as much as the new Yamaha AVR. For some reason, walking out with more crap than I just installed is a good feeling. :)

Prewiring a huge house in the middle of winter? Not the worst thing, but pretty close. :\