Hmmm... reluctantly have to chime in.
I build sell quite a few clones for people, think around 40 of them thus far, in a non commercial manner and kind of on the down low. Started doing largely to practice building, help fund tooling, the hobby expenses (bulk material cheaper) and making others without the means to to build them happy. I like when people not knowing much at all about the treasures of diy are dumbfounded a 200 amp can sound so good.
Occasionally sell of old projects of my own (unloaded my rod elliot p101 for example), but they tend to be less buzz word ones like gainclone is, thus less known and lucky to break even.
In most ways, foolish for me to keep doing it as would much more financially rewarding to moonlight my daytime skills. Like mentioned, i think McD's would pay me more per hour.
Doing a true commerical venture like channel islands etc adds a lot of overhead, legal and customer relations etc. . I now look back at a thread that moans about channel islands margin, while maybe high, my gut instinct now is you have to 3-4x price to make it reasonable, 5-6x if to make a living. Time is money. Skill is money.
But helping others and feeling useful is a good feeling that money can't buy (unless you like narcotics
)
Clones can sometimes only sell for 100-150 on ebay if they don't look appealing. Often that barely recoups parts and the overheads. While other times they run up 200-300. Get nickeled and dimed on wire, wire ends (ring/faston), screws, shipping, factoring in occasional tooling expenses and packing materials, oh and that dang paypal transactional fee.
Also hard to have consistency using new-old-stock as quantities limited. Buying all the stuff new is fairly expensive unless you get 1000 units.
I gotta retire from that little side gig... Getting anxiety of liability. More so weary from all the effort and sacrafice of time - but had been rewarding experience wise, financially a sink more than a source it feels like.
Will tell ya, customer service can be souring. You'll get people that will assume cost is X, not accounting for those little things, then think your time has been sacraficed for the their good. They assume it cost 100, for example, and then say "how about 80 dollars and shipping included?" Bite your tongue...
I build sell quite a few clones for people, think around 40 of them thus far, in a non commercial manner and kind of on the down low. Started doing largely to practice building, help fund tooling, the hobby expenses (bulk material cheaper) and making others without the means to to build them happy. I like when people not knowing much at all about the treasures of diy are dumbfounded a 200 amp can sound so good.
Occasionally sell of old projects of my own (unloaded my rod elliot p101 for example), but they tend to be less buzz word ones like gainclone is, thus less known and lucky to break even.
In most ways, foolish for me to keep doing it as would much more financially rewarding to moonlight my daytime skills. Like mentioned, i think McD's would pay me more per hour.
Doing a true commerical venture like channel islands etc adds a lot of overhead, legal and customer relations etc. . I now look back at a thread that moans about channel islands margin, while maybe high, my gut instinct now is you have to 3-4x price to make it reasonable, 5-6x if to make a living. Time is money. Skill is money.
But helping others and feeling useful is a good feeling that money can't buy (unless you like narcotics
)Clones can sometimes only sell for 100-150 on ebay if they don't look appealing. Often that barely recoups parts and the overheads. While other times they run up 200-300. Get nickeled and dimed on wire, wire ends (ring/faston), screws, shipping, factoring in occasional tooling expenses and packing materials, oh and that dang paypal transactional fee.
Also hard to have consistency using new-old-stock as quantities limited. Buying all the stuff new is fairly expensive unless you get 1000 units.
I gotta retire from that little side gig... Getting anxiety of liability. More so weary from all the effort and sacrafice of time - but had been rewarding experience wise, financially a sink more than a source it feels like.
Will tell ya, customer service can be souring. You'll get people that will assume cost is X, not accounting for those little things, then think your time has been sacraficed for the their good. They assume it cost 100, for example, and then say "how about 80 dollars and shipping included?" Bite your tongue...
back to the topic...
Why don't you see more DIY amps for sale?
I think you don't see a lot of people selling their DIY amps because they are not going to get the $$ that they put into the amps in parts. And the most expensive parts like the transformer, heat sinks and cases are re-usable. The original poster may just appreciate our work more than the average potential buyer. If everyone were like him, there would be more for sale here.
You do see people selling unfinished or partially assembled projects that they realize they will not have the time to finish.
Me, I've had a LOT of high end and ultra high end amplifiers around here, and while in a head to head comparison the store bought ones sound better, its those I'm selling because its more fun and satisfying to listen to something that you made.
Why don't you see more DIY amps for sale?
I think you don't see a lot of people selling their DIY amps because they are not going to get the $$ that they put into the amps in parts. And the most expensive parts like the transformer, heat sinks and cases are re-usable. The original poster may just appreciate our work more than the average potential buyer. If everyone were like him, there would be more for sale here.
You do see people selling unfinished or partially assembled projects that they realize they will not have the time to finish.
Me, I've had a LOT of high end and ultra high end amplifiers around here, and while in a head to head comparison the store bought ones sound better, its those I'm selling because its more fun and satisfying to listen to something that you made.
Re: back to the topic...
They're also some of the easiest to find, if you're willing to look. My Amp3 is going to reside inside the enclosure of an old PASO cassette deck I found by the side of the road (I'll be replacing the faceplate with a piece of copper), the heatsink was on the northbridge of an old motherboard, and the power supply (switched-mode industrial surplus) cost me all of 8$ shipped - and it's rated to drive about four Amp3s.
My MyRef.a is going inside a toaster, and will be using a toroidial transformer I paid $15 for.
And my Gainclone is going inside an amplifier enclosure made out of 2 Socket370 heatsinks (free), a piece of lexan (free), some rubber feet ($1.30 on sale at Radio Shack), and a handmade cast sterling silver knob (about $4 worth of sterling silver fragments - I'm using a hollow deodorant cap for a mould.
lgreen said:
They're also some of the easiest to find, if you're willing to look. My Amp3 is going to reside inside the enclosure of an old PASO cassette deck I found by the side of the road (I'll be replacing the faceplate with a piece of copper), the heatsink was on the northbridge of an old motherboard, and the power supply (switched-mode industrial surplus) cost me all of 8$ shipped - and it's rated to drive about four Amp3s.
My MyRef.a is going inside a toaster, and will be using a toroidial transformer I paid $15 for.
And my Gainclone is going inside an amplifier enclosure made out of 2 Socket370 heatsinks (free), a piece of lexan (free), some rubber feet ($1.30 on sale at Radio Shack), and a handmade cast sterling silver knob (about $4 worth of sterling silver fragments - I'm using a hollow deodorant cap for a mould.
ST, see this thread. Can you match that?
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1072385#post1072385
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1072385#post1072385
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