Reasons for DIY
Something can be done better and cheaper by building it yourself E.g buying parts and fabricating a circuit inside a box.
Riddle me this : how can we compete with this with 20 bucks & FREE shipping KKMOON High Precision Voltage Reference Module AD584kH 4-Channel 2.5V/7.5V/5V/10V - - Amazon.com
Three IC's, PCB , several connectors, Li ion battery and an attractive acrylic box ALL for less than one AD584KH not including shipping?
digikey AD584KH Analog Devices Inc. | Integrated Circuits (ICs) | DigiKey
mouser AD584KH Analog Devices | Mouser
Something can be done better and cheaper by building it yourself E.g buying parts and fabricating a circuit inside a box.
Riddle me this : how can we compete with this with 20 bucks & FREE shipping KKMOON High Precision Voltage Reference Module AD584kH 4-Channel 2.5V/7.5V/5V/10V - - Amazon.com
Three IC's, PCB , several connectors, Li ion battery and an attractive acrylic box ALL for less than one AD584KH not including shipping?
digikey AD584KH Analog Devices Inc. | Integrated Circuits (ICs) | DigiKey
mouser AD584KH Analog Devices | Mouser
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Riddle me this : how can we compete
Well, if it is about 'price' and 'counterfeit parts', you cannot compete. Especially for something like a 'voltage reference based on a cool AMD chip'. You can't even do it for the same price.
IF however “Something can be done better or cheaper by building it yourself”, well that part still exists. It exists when your goal isn't to use a potentially near-free chip, a near-free circuit board, a cheap-âhss commodity acrylic box and a couple of battery clips and chrome plated banana connectors.
It exists when you're lusting for a project to exercise your hard won skills at reproducing a $5,000 or $15,000 commercial bespoke high-end monoblock amplifier, and with your resources and research, you've gotten ahold of a darn fine design, and start accumulating the parts. It exists when you're sure you can build the amp for less than a thousand in. Or a less magnificent one for a few hundred.
Thats when DIY works. DIY also works when you've thought up something novel, something different, something that combines some (always) prior Art into a new performer that seems to have the on-paper potential to sing. DIY exists and will always exist when there is a experiment in the mind of an experimenter, whose not just blindly following a cook-book project, but digs into the how-it-really-works guts.
No one - and I mean absolutely no one - who has ever "built a ship in a bottle" has done so to compete with anyone or any product except the challenge itself.
But who wouldn't feel the admittedly geekish pride in cobbling together a pair of stout (or quad!) monoblocks, a dâhmned fine preamplifier, a magnetic-cartridge phono stage, and made all the shiny furniture to display the Giant System at his or her house? With an only-hand-built set of 7-driver tower speakers made from laminated bamboo perhaps.
Just saying - DIY can be as simple as cobbling a rat's nest of wires and sockets on a workbench into a napkin drawn circuit idea, to a glitzy custom set up that features as much metal and wood working and thought to presentation as anything that one might conceivably buy.
The only "projects" that aren't accessible anymore to the idea of “better and cheaper” really are the mega-transistor projects like discrete component tuners, like DACs, like anything with a bunch of anonymous black chippies inside. You can't do any of those cheaper, its arguable whether any DIY version is better, and you often can't even do as well as off-the-shelf equipment either new or vintage.
But that's OK. Its been a long time since HAM operators made their own transmitters and receivers. Its been a long time since hobbyists made their own DACs from scratch or their own IR remote controls. They're now just anonymous black-boxes. And they work just fine.
GoatGuy
Well, if it is about 'price' and 'counterfeit parts', you cannot compete. Especially for something like a 'voltage reference based on a cool AMD chip'. You can't even do it for the same price.
IF however “Something can be done better or cheaper by building it yourself”, well that part still exists. It exists when your goal isn't to use a potentially near-free chip, a near-free circuit board, a cheap-âhss commodity acrylic box and a couple of battery clips and chrome plated banana connectors.
It exists when you're lusting for a project to exercise your hard won skills at reproducing a $5,000 or $15,000 commercial bespoke high-end monoblock amplifier, and with your resources and research, you've gotten ahold of a darn fine design, and start accumulating the parts. It exists when you're sure you can build the amp for less than a thousand in. Or a less magnificent one for a few hundred.
Thats when DIY works. DIY also works when you've thought up something novel, something different, something that combines some (always) prior Art into a new performer that seems to have the on-paper potential to sing. DIY exists and will always exist when there is a experiment in the mind of an experimenter, whose not just blindly following a cook-book project, but digs into the how-it-really-works guts.
No one - and I mean absolutely no one - who has ever "built a ship in a bottle" has done so to compete with anyone or any product except the challenge itself.
But who wouldn't feel the admittedly geekish pride in cobbling together a pair of stout (or quad!) monoblocks, a dâhmned fine preamplifier, a magnetic-cartridge phono stage, and made all the shiny furniture to display the Giant System at his or her house? With an only-hand-built set of 7-driver tower speakers made from laminated bamboo perhaps.
Just saying - DIY can be as simple as cobbling a rat's nest of wires and sockets on a workbench into a napkin drawn circuit idea, to a glitzy custom set up that features as much metal and wood working and thought to presentation as anything that one might conceivably buy.
The only "projects" that aren't accessible anymore to the idea of “better and cheaper” really are the mega-transistor projects like discrete component tuners, like DACs, like anything with a bunch of anonymous black chippies inside. You can't do any of those cheaper, its arguable whether any DIY version is better, and you often can't even do as well as off-the-shelf equipment either new or vintage.
But that's OK. Its been a long time since HAM operators made their own transmitters and receivers. Its been a long time since hobbyists made their own DACs from scratch or their own IR remote controls. They're now just anonymous black-boxes. And they work just fine.
GoatGuy
same here...
I'm not fooling myself. Rarely will one of my fireballs be better than, say, a Pass amp. I could afford some of them, it's not the money.
I suffer from extreme guilt when I use a pro made PCB. The chassis? If I don't cut my hands a couple times making it it's no good.
I'm probably in the middle of the spectrum.
But I agree. Most DIY is dying a slow death. There isn't an app for that.
Is the new DIY the creation of the app in general?
Those pulls are for the LH version, yes many reviews out there, AFAIK none of them prove this is made from recycled Swiss cheese and does not perform to meet AD data sheet.
Plus we can easily mod a cheap commercial product and do the interesting testing stuff w/ cling on parts. Fabing PCBs isn't my idea fun, it's a means to an end.
It's easy for make / buy decision when it's test gear, otherwise it diverts time / energy away from audio. I could just as easily spend a bunch of cash to procure 6.5 digit bench DMM rather than checking my cheapies to make sure they haven't drifted off into outer space.
I've never found diy to be particularly cheap, and when you factor in the inevitable misfires and scrapping costs it isn't really about saving money is it? At least for me..
There are a lot of opportunities, at the least it is an opportunity to build something, derive some pleasure in the doing and take pride in the fact that you were able to do so.
For those who can design it is an opportunity to build exactly what you want with no compromises not chosen by yourself. When you get to this level you may be designing and building things that achieve levels of performance that you either can't buy or are so cost prohibitive that you couldn't in most cases consider it.
In all cases it is a tremendous learning opportunity, and constructive free time activity. I have a certain amount of fun doing it too.
There are a lot of opportunities, at the least it is an opportunity to build something, derive some pleasure in the doing and take pride in the fact that you were able to do so.
For those who can design it is an opportunity to build exactly what you want with no compromises not chosen by yourself. When you get to this level you may be designing and building things that achieve levels of performance that you either can't buy or are so cost prohibitive that you couldn't in most cases consider it.
In all cases it is a tremendous learning opportunity, and constructive free time activity. I have a certain amount of fun doing it too.
Modding a cheap Taobao product is very often the quickest, simplest route to what I want to achieve. I agree PCB design is a fair amount of hard slog and its not interactive enough for my limited attention span. PCB design is a bit like writing a computer program in a compiled high level language. What I prefer is interaction - hence interpreters work best for me, allowing a much faster turn-around for testing ideas.
It's easy for make / buy decision when it's test gear, otherwise it diverts time / energy away from audio. I could just as easily spend a bunch of cash to procure 6.5 digit bench DMM rather than checking my cheapies to make sure they haven't drifted off into outer space.
When I was a schoolkid many of my projects were test equipment - power supplies and digital voltmeters. These days its so much easier to buy that stuff - for example 3 digit voltmeters now go for about $1 on Taobao. Many are based on STM8 CPUs and hence can be re-purposed.
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Go to digikey or mouser and look at the 1 off prices for components, and then look at the 1000 off prices. Unless you organize large group buys, buy in bulk and then try to sell what you don't need, you will never be able to compete with the pricing of mass produced goods.
But as others have said, that's only one aspect of DIY. I diy for the satisfaction of building (or even designing) something myself. Hopefully with better performance, quality or features I can't easily get from a commercial product.
Tony.
But as others have said, that's only one aspect of DIY. I diy for the satisfaction of building (or even designing) something myself. Hopefully with better performance, quality or features I can't easily get from a commercial product.
Tony.
Just the opposite. Now with help only a clik away you no longer need the friendly guy down the street to help with your DIY project. No more waiting for the montly magazine. With expertise around the world to help diy is much more likely to succeed and some of the best stuff available to listen to is diy.
dave
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