Anyone else enjoy putting together Frankenstein low to mid-fi -systems?

I started out in high school hot wiring portable radios and tape players to larger external speakers. Does that count?

I also built a few radio kits back in those days to get started.

As an innocent 7 year old I stuck a sewing needle into a cartridge to get it to play my first records. It worked! I heard music! Several electrical shocks along the way playing with the phonograph transformed me into the electrifying hifi creature I am today.😁

I recently moved into the mountains of Central Nevada and put together a little system for use with my Solar/Battery power source.  Some components were 2nd system, like the Spica TC50 speakers and Pioneer VSX 522 Receiver.  For the TT I'm using an Technics SL-10 that was collecting dust.  I took a Jolida JD-9 Phono Pre from my main system.  I use an old iPhone 6 for digital playback.  The system is nice and the big surprise is the Ortofon OMP 10 cartridge with a OMP 30 stylus, talk about make for each other. The 310MC cartridge that came with the SL-10 died many years ago, that's why it was unused.  My main system is 300 miles away and I only get to enjoy it when we're in town for Doctor's appointments and such.

At WSU I had transmission lines built from Roger Sanders design in Speaker Builder. The 10" woofers were from JBL L25. On top were some car audio speakers, Pioneer maybe, I forget. Powered by Kenwood integrated. TV back then had 1/8" jacks for hearing aids or something. An RCA adaptor and the TV became my audio source. So I had Home Theater decades before it became "a thing".