In an effort of simplifying my life I’m considering quitting the DIY route. It takes me a long time to get stuff built (two years in on EL34 Baby Huey’s and don’t even have all the parts yet) and I’m thinking it might just be easier to buy good quality gear and be done with it. I’ve built tube amps, guitar amps, speakers, etc. what’s happening also is I’m ending up with stuff I have no room for too. I enjoy the process, but I’m in my mid 50’s and would rather spend the time listening instead of building, tweaking, etc.
Anyone else been in this predicament?
Anyone else been in this predicament?
Endless designing and going back to the drawing board with amplifiers or other ideas can do that.
My last 2 sets of speakers were also just too damn big in one case, and too fiddly and complicated in both cases. Angled wood cuts with tonnes of sanding and smoothing to fit speaker-origami together, combined with too many other commitments in life, resulted in one set of speakers being stuck in limbo, waiting for other parts to come together. And the other currently plays in mono until I get a long weekend with zero interruptions so I can focus on over-complicated gluing of the stereo pair.
Any takeaways? I guess most of those 2/3-way designs and measurements you see around the place are only really feasible if you're in a place where you can reliably spend solid hours without family interruptions. If you can only spare an hour here or there, that's often not enough to even get set up.
How do you explain to a multitasking guru / non-technical spouse that you can't place half a Mouser order? Or leave components strewn about. So the pressure is high to get organised better, but also to make projects more "zen" with less parts and less tweaking to perfection.
It's like that saying that perfect is the enemy of the good.
My last 2 sets of speakers were also just too damn big in one case, and too fiddly and complicated in both cases. Angled wood cuts with tonnes of sanding and smoothing to fit speaker-origami together, combined with too many other commitments in life, resulted in one set of speakers being stuck in limbo, waiting for other parts to come together. And the other currently plays in mono until I get a long weekend with zero interruptions so I can focus on over-complicated gluing of the stereo pair.
Any takeaways? I guess most of those 2/3-way designs and measurements you see around the place are only really feasible if you're in a place where you can reliably spend solid hours without family interruptions. If you can only spare an hour here or there, that's often not enough to even get set up.
How do you explain to a multitasking guru / non-technical spouse that you can't place half a Mouser order? Or leave components strewn about. So the pressure is high to get organised better, but also to make projects more "zen" with less parts and less tweaking to perfection.
It's like that saying that perfect is the enemy of the good.
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Been working on some DiY projects since 1989 and still not finished. I sell or give away projects to friends when the clutter gets too cluttered. The big sell off/give away was September, 2021. Retired and moved.
I won't give up the DIY. It keeps me occupied and I enjoy it.
My garage and office are packed full with my projects. Lots of parts are still in the attic. My life is still at the point where I can't have a few beers and listen to music at whatever volume I choose, but frequent enough that I can get my "fix" whenever I need it.
The attic saved me. The wife can't see it, she doesn't even look up there.
I won't give up the DIY. It keeps me occupied and I enjoy it.
My garage and office are packed full with my projects. Lots of parts are still in the attic. My life is still at the point where I can't have a few beers and listen to music at whatever volume I choose, but frequent enough that I can get my "fix" whenever I need it.
The attic saved me. The wife can't see it, she doesn't even look up there.
I retired from DIY in 2009 when I was about 42, after about 6 years all in. I have about 7 amps, 4 preamps and various phono preamps, headphone amps, xlr converters, buffers, etc... that I can never really use and have to remember to power on every few years to keep the caps formed. Its its just too much stuff and fills up an entire room.
I do check in here once in a while for fun but never made anything in the last 14 years. I have since downsized all my commercial/store bought gear, only store bought items left are an OTL preamp/headphone amp (for backup and tube fun), tuner, turntable and super cool Akai audio timer that I use as a clock. I sold off/ gave away a ton of parts.
I guess you could say I retired from audio as well, power this stuff on about 4-10 days a month max.
It was nice to let go and its still fun to check in here and see what you all are doing in the 2020s. I can still power this stuff up anytime and its all sounding good still. Actually sounds great.
So go ahead and give retirement a try you can always Tom Brady it and come back due to popular demand.... I do have an empty chassis in the garage though.....hmmm.....
I do check in here once in a while for fun but never made anything in the last 14 years. I have since downsized all my commercial/store bought gear, only store bought items left are an OTL preamp/headphone amp (for backup and tube fun), tuner, turntable and super cool Akai audio timer that I use as a clock. I sold off/ gave away a ton of parts.
I guess you could say I retired from audio as well, power this stuff on about 4-10 days a month max.
It was nice to let go and its still fun to check in here and see what you all are doing in the 2020s. I can still power this stuff up anytime and its all sounding good still. Actually sounds great.
So go ahead and give retirement a try you can always Tom Brady it and come back due to popular demand.... I do have an empty chassis in the garage though.....hmmm.....
Well, it's a tricky one. I'm quite a bit younger, but many kids, and my spare time for diy designing and creating has come down to basically time when they are all asleep. So usually 11pm till i drop to bed tired 😅 7am waking up, rince and repeat. All that without a specialised room for it, so it gets harder with that. Thing that keeps me at it, is purely because i found that i love it very much and i love learning EE. It is tiresome, but most things seem to be these days. But it does catch up, mostly sleep, lack there of, that makes me take a break for a bit now and then. My suggestion would be, take a bigger break, as long as you need. Then make quality devices for the chain and be done with making new stuff. When itch comes, tweak them, don't create new. This way, you have still diy hobby, and you won't be hoarding stuff you keep making. Mans mental hygiene is important, thats where hobbies are a great tool, or proper soap to put it in metaphore, and for our kind, diy is one hell of a good hobby.
I'm on a 2-3 year hiatus. I moved so I had to take a year off to prep the house for sale, then sell it, then pack it. It came down to not wanting to pack EVERYTHING so I gave away or sold roughly half of my gear, projects and parts. It was the right time as I was just not motivated enough to build anything new.
I have now been in my new house for 18 months and have a nice 10'x11' workshop dedicated to DIY almost finished. Once the countertop is in I'll be starting up again with all the "cool" projects I've saved and a few new ones I picked up the parts for.
I thought about quitting it to but the hiatus has given me a fresh start and allowed me to see what I have that I forgot about. But of course you gotta do what you gotta do
I have now been in my new house for 18 months and have a nice 10'x11' workshop dedicated to DIY almost finished. Once the countertop is in I'll be starting up again with all the "cool" projects I've saved and a few new ones I picked up the parts for.
I thought about quitting it to but the hiatus has given me a fresh start and allowed me to see what I have that I forgot about. But of course you gotta do what you gotta do
My house is full with parts and scientific detritus, top and bottom - I intentionally bought a house with a full basement (built in 1906, no less) to have tinkering room. Maybe it's time to start utilizing the attic... Between the records, CDs, and parts, it's a full house.... Maybe it's also time to do some e-waste hauls, as I have motherboards and jug-based monitors I don't need any more.
It's probably a good idea to pause the DIY for a while. Quitting is something you'll maybe regret later. I'd say, put it aside for a while, a few month maybe or go on a different DIY path, ie building speakers or something completely different, metal work, furniture or painting. Maybe work together with someone else, who got ideas and expertise in a different type of craft. After having a rest from amp designs etc,, the time gives you a bit different perspective. If you still feel quitting will be the right choice, quit it then and there, that's the right choice and you can still throw all the stuff out (or sell it). If not, you don't regret getting rid of all the stuff. 😉
Same age same dilemma as OP. I could replace half a garage of "stuff" with a couple of shiny new class D amps. Smaller, more efficient, more power, less THD+N. And if they burnt the house down at least I'd be insured. 🙂.
I had a separate building. And I outgrew it. Building a whole new compound, that doesn’t constantly have something wrong that ”needs fixing right now”.
New construction is actually fun. I hate renovations, and constantly running into issues that you have to spend a ridiculous amount of time and energy jacking with before any real progress can be made. At some point real progress will be made on speakers and amplifiers again, when the shop is finally big enough, emptied of everything that really belongs in the BARN, and all the toilets and appliances are new enough to ignore for 15 minutes.
New construction is actually fun. I hate renovations, and constantly running into issues that you have to spend a ridiculous amount of time and energy jacking with before any real progress can be made. At some point real progress will be made on speakers and amplifiers again, when the shop is finally big enough, emptied of everything that really belongs in the BARN, and all the toilets and appliances are new enough to ignore for 15 minutes.
I'm of a similar mindset and it's been several years since I've built anything. I do still enjoy the planning, designing, and building, but I don't use anything I build longterm. Partly, this is because most designs are "prototypes" and really need a redesign or rebuild to fix a small concern here or there. But, it is tedious to try to desolder parts from previous iterations of PCBs and there is a risk of damage which is not palatable with rare parts like Toshiba JFETs, so I have ended up with a lot of stuffed boards that are unused. Having to replace all parts for every redesign eventually started to feel like a waste of money because these projects will never be "done" since there is no objective end goal.
I've recently started selling off partly complete old projects. There is some regret involved with this process, but I guess I feel better overall having less clutter and believing that maybe the projects will be completed and enjoyed by someone.
I've recently started selling off partly complete old projects. There is some regret involved with this process, but I guess I feel better overall having less clutter and believing that maybe the projects will be completed and enjoyed by someone.
It’s the interesting to see that it’s fairly common. Like I said I have a few projects (EL34 BH, Aikido pre, Hagerman Pre, My_Ref, another chipamp, ST-35, 6F6 guitar amp, Mini Bassman, mosfet headphone amp, and a Sansui Au719 project) that are all in various stages of build. The oldest is the ST-35 where I’ve had the PCB populated since at least 2003, lol. I just never seem to get to it.
Listening to music, playing music and building gear are all different hobbies that bring different kinds of joy. Keep those making your happy.
Depends much of how you get satisfaction in your life. I have been building amplifiers and loudspeakers for 50 years now. With varying results I have to admit.
What makes me still building my own equipment is the deep satisfaction that I built something good myself. For a reasonable price. And the knowledge that I can modify it to my likes. And repair it whenever it breaks. You can't have these options with equipment you buy.
What makes me still building my own equipment is the deep satisfaction that I built something good myself. For a reasonable price. And the knowledge that I can modify it to my likes. And repair it whenever it breaks. You can't have these options with equipment you buy.
I must admit that I was deflated from DIY when Jan announced the passing of Scott Wurcer.
Prior to that I got a kick out of building a MOSFET amp on Nat Semi development board -- all within the confines of a Sumo Polaris amplifier which had blown up!
Prior to that I got a kick out of building a MOSFET amp on Nat Semi development board -- all within the confines of a Sumo Polaris amplifier which had blown up!
I could've quit but it would cost 200k plus to get a system that sounds like mine. Audio nirvana has been reached. It's a lot of work but around 800 in parts. Tube preamp biggest single piece.
I need a serious trip to the dump. We lean a lot toward DIY everything and collecting up stuff that one day may be useful has paved every surface. Sometimes it is useful, sometimes it sits for 10 years with no need coming up.
Been spending most of my time playing guitar and singing songs that are within my skill level. Havent been listening much lately, it's as if I took a year off; both systems non-op. Last DIY is a "performance stool" holding a Behringer mixer, amp, battery and inverter. Last build in the wood shop was a couple of wooden hooks for the stool, to hang my headsets on underneath, mic and headphone.
Last acquisition was a gigantic Hammond amp an open-mike acquaintance gave me. Took up all the 6V6s I own and I got it working, after replacing a coupling cap. What then, Joe? I dunno - feels bad to sell it and I'll probably never actually use it for anything practical. The kind of guitar I play doesnt fit a 100 lb, two channel tube amp / speaker combo. Direct line to the PA board is just fine -
It's hard to change perspective on something you've been doing since you were a kid. Even though the motivation one had then is certainly no longer applicable. A lesser "definition of insanity" -
Been spending most of my time playing guitar and singing songs that are within my skill level. Havent been listening much lately, it's as if I took a year off; both systems non-op. Last DIY is a "performance stool" holding a Behringer mixer, amp, battery and inverter. Last build in the wood shop was a couple of wooden hooks for the stool, to hang my headsets on underneath, mic and headphone.
Last acquisition was a gigantic Hammond amp an open-mike acquaintance gave me. Took up all the 6V6s I own and I got it working, after replacing a coupling cap. What then, Joe? I dunno - feels bad to sell it and I'll probably never actually use it for anything practical. The kind of guitar I play doesnt fit a 100 lb, two channel tube amp / speaker combo. Direct line to the PA board is just fine -
It's hard to change perspective on something you've been doing since you were a kid. Even though the motivation one had then is certainly no longer applicable. A lesser "definition of insanity" -
I thought about quitting and buying off the shelf gear. I went to a CanJam to sample the gear I liked only to realize that I'd be $20k deep into one DAC and one amp that got me pretty close" to where I was at for $1800 in DIY
