Soldering some Electronic Kits

Yes, I know what you're thinking. Electronic kits and at my age too.

I used to buy some of these when I was in my teens, learning electronics and being a member of an electronics club. Many a times were spent on figuring out why the kit did not work after I have soldered it. Mind you, if I can locate back some of these kits, it would have answered my question.

For you see, what you see and interpret at that moment in time, will be very different in the future or past. For example, when I look at my soldering in the past, it was perfect but fast forward decades later, my future self would have remarked and critised the very same work which in the past, I would have thought it to be perfect.

And another example in thinking is that when I was going that kid, it was for the purpose of self satisfaction and also the potential to show-off to your friends (provided it worked in the first place). But now, its nothing more than a cheap and fast alternative module to a problem/project i.e. 'Off-the-Shelf' solutions.

Anyway, today is an exercise in futility. This was for a project for a friend who wanted to light up his Aida Cruise ship. The idea is to 'simulate' a laser-light show in the ship and my idea was to suggest a number of LEDs which increasingly lights the area when an outside source was detected. In other words, a VU Meter...

And right off the bat, the said VU Meter electronic kit was not available.
So, I had to get two other electronics kits to perform the same function.

The first was actually the VU Meter section which would light up the LEDs when the Audio signal source is increased

You can tell right away that this is a very cheap kit due to the age of the PCB, its etching quality  and also, oxidized copper tracks.
At the same time, please note the cleanliness of my soldering.

OK, this part is done. Normally, you can now plug in a 9 volt battery and solder an audio jack, then connect to your Hi-Fi, MP3 player, etc. But no, not for me because I don't want to waste my audio jacks...

Here is the second part of the citcuit. A Megaphone which consists an amplifier with a mix and no speaker.

Again, please note the wonderful soldering skills of mine

And so, after combining the two circuits together and some component adjustment, it works.

Oh, and the futility?
My friend took one look at it and that's it. The End.

What a waste of time and money. I really have to stop believing stuff when people talk and separate fancy talk from facts.