By all accounts Wei is a badass hacker in the truest sense of the word. Being able to source the parts on the cheap and basically put it together by himself is remarkable and a testament to good old-fashioned hard work. I'm going to make a generalization here and say that most Americans have lost this kind of DIY spirit. Instead we just whip out our Visa/Mastercard and decide to just buy what we need on credit. Yes,…
Utterly false, you are simply out of touch with DIY culture, which is growing. In audio alone (a tiny fraction of DIY), people design and build incredible tube amps, horn speakers, etc. using a combination of hand craftsmanship and cutting edge computer simulation.
Sound-wise, for under $2k, it's not that hard to surpass what you'd buy for $200k. It's a world-wide phenomenon but nonetheless huge in the US. Check out http://www.diyaudio.com for example.