I would like to add to this that making a business out of a hobby is great way of ruining a hobby. After awhile it just becomes work. But I do understand the desire of ROI, (Return On Investment).
I don't know.... seems to fit the physical and marketing talk.... though I have never seen one.... and a lot of filters are using nanotube film technology and at low freq as well.
Just saying ...
THx-RNMarsh
https://upcommons.upc.edu/bitstream/handle/2117/16425/capacitive_tunnels_single-walled_Iqbal.pdf
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Hi Kean,
how to set up LTspice in order to get those loop like curves as in your attached picture, and does those loop curves have any name so we can search more on the topic.
If you don't mind perhaps could post under the thread below and give a brief explanation.
Installing and using LTspice IV. From beginner to advanced.
Thanks and regards
Michael
No they aren't. Do you just Google nanotubes and post a link to whatever shows up or do you actually read and understand the contents?
Take a real-life example.
A good friend has a small factory manufacturing very simple automated machinery for the textile industry.
Operation with 5 persons in total. Annual turnover ~2 Million USD.
VERY healthy profit margin.
The basic design was done ten years ago, with continuous updates. So not a lot of development effort.
All parts are subcontracted, all industrial components, no cosmetic requirements.
No need to stock unobtainium FETs, no matching required, no customers complaining about a tiny scratch here and there....
(And people do not realise how much infra-structure, like store management, ...., you need for proper matching on a large scale.)
Direct sales, so no middle man to take 50% of your margin.
Ask him if he wants to do anything with audio ?
Forget it.
Patrick
A good friend has a small factory manufacturing very simple automated machinery for the textile industry.
Operation with 5 persons in total. Annual turnover ~2 Million USD.
VERY healthy profit margin.
The basic design was done ten years ago, with continuous updates. So not a lot of development effort.
All parts are subcontracted, all industrial components, no cosmetic requirements.
No need to stock unobtainium FETs, no matching required, no customers complaining about a tiny scratch here and there....
(And people do not realise how much infra-structure, like store management, ...., you need for proper matching on a large scale.)
Direct sales, so no middle man to take 50% of your margin.
Ask him if he wants to do anything with audio ?
Forget it.
Patrick
Patrick and Chris were certainly both talking about making money on the side from your hobby.
The ones currently being sold as real profesional by the major manufacturers.
They are aware of the heterodyne issue and when that occurs they will provide ferrite beads.
Richard,
Ferrite cores work just fine and cost less than The devices I try to only discuss on April first.
AV systems today are starting at five million just for the sound system. With all the rest thrown in closing on twenty million.
Just looked at plans for a suite system. Nine large TVs a video wall switcher and touch screen remote. About forty thousand dollars per thirty-four suites.
There are quite a few people around here who do audio professionally, for a living (i.e. not me).
I get to know a few, and I would not call them rich.
They make a comfortable living.
But they could have done the same, or better, doing something else professionally, given their talent and capability.
That was what I was trying to say.
Patrick
I get to know a few, and I would not call them rich.
They make a comfortable living.
But they could have done the same, or better, doing something else professionally, given their talent and capability.
That was what I was trying to say.
Patrick
Or they may not. Audio folks tend to be a bit eccentric and just might not fit elsewhere.
There may be some accidental ones forming in carbon comp resistors. That's what you guys are talking about, right?
(CNT's, don't get me started, my eyes can only roll so far back in my head)
Hi Scott,
I ran a well regarded service company for 16 years in Mississauga, Ontario. It isn't regarded nearly as well soon after I sold it. I was squeaking by for the last few years, the the warranty rates were frozen, and the bottom dropped out of that market. It was clear that most distributors do not want the product to be fixed, and bucking that trend might make you feel good, but it doesn't put food on your plate.
All,
I moved to test equipment calibration and repair for another company, then got into the commercial telephone and paging industry. Both other occupations paid a hell of a lot better, and I could leave the job at work at the end of the day. My head felt it was on vacation as well. I'd have to say that my love of audio made my work better, but it also got me involved with work that wasn't financially sound. I was focused on high end and mid-fi audio, MI work and recording studios. Those aspects were viable and really carried the business. Home audio became less and less profitable over a relatively short period of time. I really missed the good old days when I was working with Marantz and Yamaha, before service was viewed as an asset rather than a dead cost.
-Chris
I ran a well regarded service company for 16 years in Mississauga, Ontario. It isn't regarded nearly as well soon after I sold it. I was squeaking by for the last few years, the the warranty rates were frozen, and the bottom dropped out of that market. It was clear that most distributors do not want the product to be fixed, and bucking that trend might make you feel good, but it doesn't put food on your plate.
All,
I moved to test equipment calibration and repair for another company, then got into the commercial telephone and paging industry. Both other occupations paid a hell of a lot better, and I could leave the job at work at the end of the day. My head felt it was on vacation as well. I'd have to say that my love of audio made my work better, but it also got me involved with work that wasn't financially sound. I was focused on high end and mid-fi audio, MI work and recording studios. Those aspects were viable and really carried the business. Home audio became less and less profitable over a relatively short period of time. I really missed the good old days when I was working with Marantz and Yamaha, before service was viewed as an asset rather than a dead cost.
-Chris
I must agree that 'all else being equal' audio is a hard place to make an extremely profitable living, except for marketing something at the right time, sometimes. Like Monster Cable, Levinson, and several others have done over the decades.
Repair of audio is almost hopelessly non-profitable these days. Generally it is too hard to do, and people usually can buy replacements cheaper than the repair will cost.
Back in my day, 50+ years ago, when I did audio repair, it was different. All tubes, with sockets. You just cleaned the chassis, tested and replaced the tubes when necessary, and then that left a small percentage of real repairs, which did take serious experience. A really good audio repair technician is worth his weight in gold! Alas, there is no profit in it anymore.
Audio as a hobby for most of you makes the most sense. If you can work in a more profitable area of electronics, then for all means, do so. Most of you would never be completely successful anyway in really superior audio design.
Now, don't feel bad or defensive about this. Something similar happened to me about 55+ years ago, when I studied ballet very seriously for several years. After years of daily classes, I realized I could dance, but not well enough to be a ballet star, or principal, so I reluctantly gave it up. One has to know one's limitations, and I had found one of mine. Electronic engineering-physics was the back-up that I pursued successfully, because without it, I would have been really a marginal dancer, perhaps employed with some local ballet, while my friends went to Ballet Theatre, as they actually did.
In any case, some of us are born to do something exceptional in an area of expertise, but not all of us are equipped for EVERY area of expertise, and we should chose where we are most effective.
There is still room for improvement in audio electronics, which actually depends more on 'how good the component sounds', rather than how the component actually measures, although some measurements do predict 'good sound' such as this interest here in output impedance linearity. I consider that to be much more significant than super low thd numbers. Almost anybody can make low thd numbers with an IC op amp, or its discrete equivalent. That doesn't necessarily predict what the unit will sound like, however.
Now many of you do not believe me, but I have been relatively successful in making quality designs, even without double-blind listening tests, which I find ineffective in discerning small differences.
Stick with your day job, guys! '-)
Repair of audio is almost hopelessly non-profitable these days. Generally it is too hard to do, and people usually can buy replacements cheaper than the repair will cost.
Back in my day, 50+ years ago, when I did audio repair, it was different. All tubes, with sockets. You just cleaned the chassis, tested and replaced the tubes when necessary, and then that left a small percentage of real repairs, which did take serious experience. A really good audio repair technician is worth his weight in gold! Alas, there is no profit in it anymore.
Audio as a hobby for most of you makes the most sense. If you can work in a more profitable area of electronics, then for all means, do so. Most of you would never be completely successful anyway in really superior audio design.
Now, don't feel bad or defensive about this. Something similar happened to me about 55+ years ago, when I studied ballet very seriously for several years. After years of daily classes, I realized I could dance, but not well enough to be a ballet star, or principal, so I reluctantly gave it up. One has to know one's limitations, and I had found one of mine. Electronic engineering-physics was the back-up that I pursued successfully, because without it, I would have been really a marginal dancer, perhaps employed with some local ballet, while my friends went to Ballet Theatre, as they actually did.
In any case, some of us are born to do something exceptional in an area of expertise, but not all of us are equipped for EVERY area of expertise, and we should chose where we are most effective.
There is still room for improvement in audio electronics, which actually depends more on 'how good the component sounds', rather than how the component actually measures, although some measurements do predict 'good sound' such as this interest here in output impedance linearity. I consider that to be much more significant than super low thd numbers. Almost anybody can make low thd numbers with an IC op amp, or its discrete equivalent. That doesn't necessarily predict what the unit will sound like, however.
Now many of you do not believe me, but I have been relatively successful in making quality designs, even without double-blind listening tests, which I find ineffective in discerning small differences.
Stick with your day job, guys! '-)
Well John, my experience on the other side of the planet is a little different. I am 64 years old and have been in audio repair for my entire adult life. I started whilst in high school, repairing musician's equipment for a local music store. I almost closed my business 10 years ago, because business was so slow. Things are different now. So many guys have closed their doors, that I find myself in a position where there is almost no one left to service audio equipment. Since I am near to the time when I will hang up my soldering iron (I figure 6 ~ 7 years - but I will never really hang it up), I am restricting service work to the stuff I enjoy fixing. Like Krell KMA160 I have on the bench right now. It's a big job, but it will be reasonably profitable. Seriously though, I have an annoyingly large back-log of repair jobs. I wonder if I will ever retire. The trend to Class D amplification will ensure that older style, analogue amplifiers will appreciate in value in coming years. McIntosh have proven that old, inferior technology (output transformers - really?) can remain desirable for a very long time. Me? I don't mind, as long as the stuff fails every now and again. Class D amps will soon be commodity items and not worth repiaring. Even those really expensive ones.
As for making serious money, guys like ByBee have the right formula. By something for a couple of Bucks, bling it up, add some serious marketing gobbledegook, pay off some reviewers and sell it for $300.00. We've seen it before and we'll see it all again (Shakti Stones, Telos Quantum Stickers, etc, etc) . For my part, I just tell my clients to put as much money as they can into room selection and treatment. Followed by decent speakers, the rest will follow. Just common-sense.
As for making serious money, guys like ByBee have the right formula. By something for a couple of Bucks, bling it up, add some serious marketing gobbledegook, pay off some reviewers and sell it for $300.00. We've seen it before and we'll see it all again (Shakti Stones, Telos Quantum Stickers, etc, etc) . For my part, I just tell my clients to put as much money as they can into room selection and treatment. Followed by decent speakers, the rest will follow. Just common-sense.
I have a good illustration of what JC is talking about; In Bangkok, I have a larger Parasound PA designed by JC used to compare with other PA's. A few weeks ago, my girl from Nepal was visiting me in Bangkok and I took her to the factory and we compared a prototype and JC's PA. I asked her which she 'liked' best. She liked JC's.
Specs alone can sell product and sound alone can sell product. If you have both in best balance, the product will always be in demand and at the top of the heap.
THx-RNMarsh
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