What did you spend on DIY this year?

[mrevie]

This has been my first true year of DIY any my god.. the cost adds up.

Set of speakers (Tony Gee's LBS), subwoofers (sealed w/ Linkwitz transform and a 30Hz tapped horn), DIY subwoofer plate amp, LM3875 gainclone, F5, set of surrounds, started a set of uFonkens and a small foray into tube amps. The tools have contributed a large chunk of the cost as well. An oscilloscope definitely the coolest among them.

I'm hoping the addiction will slow down in years to come. :P

[Geek]

Originally Posted by mrevie

I'm hoping the addiction will slow down in years to come. :P

BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

[mrevie]

I'm only 21, so it damn well better slow down or I'll be broke for life!

[planet10]

On the other hand, think how much you'll save because you aren't signing your pay cheques over to the local hifi store

dave

[prickears]

Think I'll just keep DIYing until I am as broke as the day I met my mother!

If you ain't bust, you ain't having a go!

[Geek]

Originally Posted by prickears

If you ain't bust, you ain't having a go!

Such great wisdom

Cheers!

[cda75]

You chaps must all be richer than me!

[CBRworm]

Or perhaps we could be richer, but are in fact poorer due to DIY. I live a fairly modest lifestyle due to all the crap I have piled up.

I have always spent a lot of money on DIY. the variable is what I am DIYing.

Audio has always been near the top of my list, whether home audio, HT, or car audio. I appreciate new stuff, vintage stuff, and DIY stuff.

but I have also always had motorcycles. I would swap carbs, change carb needles and jets daily, swap cams, change cam timing for specific events, change pistons, ECU's, lightweight balanced crankshafts. Try different valve seat angles and widths, different valve shapes and materials, try 20 different types of race fuel, buy 10 sets of tires to figure out which ones are the lightest as well as the stickiest to find the best combination. I have tried titanium wrist pins (didn't work), and lots of other things that didn't work, all to be the fastest in what was essentially a waste of time - that went on for about 10 years, luckily that is the one addiction I have given up.

I have also always been into car audio, luckily my cars have always used home audio drivers which are good value for the money. But they are always fully active and usualy require months of tuning to get everything working together. My current car is an '06. For tweeters in the front I have had mutliple SEAS, DLS(kept), Peerless HDS, and others. I have had DLS and Morel midrange domes (ended up giving up on the domes). For midbasses I have tried SEAS P18RNX, CA18, ER18RNX (stuck with), DLS, Morel, Adire, Focal, and some others I don't remember. For amplifiers I have had Mmats, Alpine, DLS, Arc Audio, and finally stuck with Helix. For subwoofer I have tried more combinations than I can remember, but they included the DIYMA 12, IDMAX12, and ended up with a more mainstream JL12W6V2 - which has been phenomenal in my small sealed box application.

I have always been into computers - I won't even start to list the amount of time and money that has been put into this machine that I am internet-ing right now - but suffice to say it is much more than required. It has no less than 7TB of Raid 5 - just like I hoard physical things, every song, software piece, picture, etc that I have picked up since the 'Big Crash' of 95 is still in there.

I am also a hoarder - I have more vintage gear than I will ever use, but I can't bring myself to sell them. I have more speakers than I can store - but I like them all. I have computers from the past that have no value but I just can't get rid of. My garage is full of car amplifiers that were good in 1985 and for some reason I still can't get rid of them.


So for me DIY is much more than just audio - I am a tweaker by nature, and truly addicted to it. No matter what I am working on I will tweak it until the holes are worn out and the bolts are stripped. Luckily with the advent of E-bay, I buy most of my stuff used and then resell most of it at a very small loss.

I have found DIY audio to be the least expensive of all my previous undertakings, and also the safest. The money I choose for the poll is only audio.

[Conrad Hoffman]

Dang it all, you've discovered my secret- buy high and sell low.

But I've learned something too- I can store my junk box under the bed-






and sleep 30 feet in the air!

CH

[TerryO]

Originally Posted by cda75

You chaps must all be richer than me!

cda,
I doubt that there's anyone on this forum who envies my financial status, I'm kind of like the old woman that lived in a shoe. With a single income it's been interesting to say the least, but I've found that I've got a much better system, in most respects, than I did 35 years ago and I'm not kidding a bit, it cost me a fraction of what I spent then.

To put it in perspective, I *think* I've learned what to look for. I do shop the St. Vinnie's and Goodwills, as I have found some very good deals. I make my own ICs and speaker cables, speakers and whatever else that I can afford.

I enter competitions and have won several or been it the top places, which has contributed to my store of exotic drivers and gear, etc.

One thing that I've learned is that a minimalist diy system will give you a leg up on really great sound and can actually beat many of the expensive "audiophile" systems that are priced out in the multi or tens of thousands of dollars. I've been lucky enough to have heard several of what are considered among the top systems in the world, and I'm not very envious to say the least. In fact, a couple of the owners of said systems have complimented me on the sound that my gear produces.

I'm sure that many here have better systems, but my recommendation for the hypothetical brand new guy that wants to get started and doesn't have much money:

Speakers:

I like the TL/horns that Dave has on his Planet10 site. The BIB varieties are also winners.

Amplifier:

GainClone with a National Semiconductor 1875 chip. Puts out about 20-25 watts and sound pretty nice. Curt Chang built one with Radio Shack transformers and parts. I think that he had about $25-30 in it and evidently felt it sounded pretty good.
Use a passive attenuator, there are several shown right here on diyAudio and again can be dirt cheap, especially if you're using a single source like a DVD player or whatever.

Anyway that's my take on it.

Best Regards,
TerryO