A Career in Tube Audio?

[Layberinthius]

Is there such a thing as /steady/ moolah when it comes to a self-owned buisness in Vacuum tubes anymore?

Will a person whom has dedicated his life to Vacuum Tubes and Electronics in general be able to afford all the desires of many a hard-sluggers out there?

[Sch3mat1c]

Not that I know of. Turner Audio turns some money from tubes and such, but as I recall he gets most of his money from repairing SS, guitar amps and such. Ditto for a guy in NY, forget his company name... AFAIK profit margins aren't very wide either.

Tim

[v-man]

hi to all,from a newbie on this interesting site.
to answer your question,let me start by telling you what i do for a living. i repair most of the so called high-end tube audio out there.i also repair most types of tube instrument amplification. i build brand new tube amplifiers, and pre-amps of all kinds.
and i do make a living out of it, but its hard, and with all the cheap equipment coming in from china, korea etc,its getting harder.

[Colt45]

you can make a lot more money off of snake oil

which much 'audiophiles' seem to do...

[Sch3mat1c]

Yeah. I've got the metalworking skills to do it, I should build one of those $30k amps. Don't have any super-high-end-paper-in-oil-WE-300B type junk tho.

[rif]

Originally posted by Sch3mat1c
Yeah. I've got the metalworking skills to do it, I should build one of those $30k amps. Don't have any super-high-end-paper-in-oil-WE-300B type junk tho.

HEy that gives me a great idea, seriously! Instead of an open ended group buy, why not have a group build (limited to a small # of folks)????

We'd have the intention of building something ridiculously good looking, with exotic snake oil from the depths of the Amazon... and try to sell it.

[Sch3mat1c]

...I think not.


MINE, ALL MINEEEEE!!!!!



Tim

[v-man]

you lot crack me up,
but there is some truth in your madness. the audiophile industry is a strange one.
good luck in whatever you do.

[dhaen]

Anthony,

From the look of your web site, you appear to be one of the few who can earn a living from this You have my admiration.
I was in consumer electronics 30 years ago: It wasn't easy then: It's more difficult now. My forays are when I'm between "real jobs".

[v-man]

thanks john,
the site is a bit dated now but it gives people some history on the things i have done, and an insight into what i am up to now.
i agree, if you have experience in electronics,especialy in the audio industry, there is still a fair bit of work out there.
but sometimes you have to sort through a lot of chaff to get to the weat if you get my drift.