Building: Good Build Habits

Before we dive into actual building, it might be helpful to review some good build habits that should help things turn out well (and make them easier to fix if they don't). 

• Practice your soldering skills, pick the right tip size! If you're not confident in your soldering skills, now is the time to watch some YouTube tutorial videos and maybe practice a little (you can use the diode section of the PSU board, which we will not use and should be snapped off). A bad solder joint can be murder to find later. Better not to make bad joints in the first place. Some practice can also help you decide whether you've got the right tip size on your soldering iron. BTW, I set my soldering iron at 650 F, in case you were wondering. :-)
• Shiny iron: keep your soldering iron tip clean by "tinning" it just before use. Melt a little solder onto it, then wipe on a damp sponge or in wire wool. It should be a shiny chrome when you use it, not a darkened, dull color. 
• A little blob for heat transfer: just before you solder a part, put a tiny bit of solder on the tip of your iron, to facilitate heat transfer to the pad and lead. 
• Good ventilation, good light: solder and flux are toxic, so open a window or set up a little fan (I use this $7 USB-powered fan), so that you aren't inhaling it while you are assembling your boards. Also make sure you have good lighting to work by. A little gooseneck LED lamp can help put light where you want it. 
• Lay down a towel (or two): It's all too easy to drop a tiny part and have it bounce to the floor and disappear. Laying down a small towel on your table can help catch parts and prevent the hunting on your hands-and-knees. And if you have hard wood or tile floors, consider laying a towel on the floor beneath your workspace, too. Believe me, it will save you a lot of frustration. 
• Print out schematics and BOMs: you should have printed copies of the schematics (both for the PSU and the amp boards) and the BOMs you used, so that you can easily refer to them to check that you have the right part in hand before soldering. The schematics for the Aleph J power supply and the amp board are both here, in the first post of the "illustrated build guide" thread. 
• Neatness counts! Be tidy. Think in advance about how you want to arrange your wire runs. Use zip ties. Make it neat. This will help if you later need advice on the forums. 

Now for a few suggestions about board stuffing habits, specifically: 

• Small parts first: as a general rule, install parts starting with smaller parts first. Save the biggest for last. Of course, there will be exceptions, but the idea is to avoid having to maneuver around big parts as you try to install the small ones. 
• Clean, measure, and log: Just before soldering, use a pencil eraser (the simple pink ones are fine) to clean off oxidation from your parts leads (you'll be surprised how much gunk comes off!). And use your multimeter to test each resistor and log the measured value in a notebook, to help with troubleshooting if necessary. 
• Values legible! Install your parts so that the part values are legible from above. Ideally, it would be nice if they all were oriented in the same direction, too. This will make it a lot easier for people to spot errors for you later, should troubleshooting be necessary. 
• Consider static: after reading a bunch of forum posts on the subject, I'm persuaded that building an Aleph J doesn't require that you work on a static mat with an anti-static wrist bracelet. Nevertheless, because MOSFets can be damaged by static discharge, ground yourself before handling and installing them. Assuming your soldering station is grounded via a 3-prong AC plug, just touch it just before touching any transistors. That should do it.