Hi Mark.
To begin with, I'm not that black and white, I recognize that
some people with passion can back their claims , and we all know their names
.
And I mean, say, Peter Jensen, James B. Lansing, H.H. Scott, Matti Ottala, ...... I could name thousands of illustrious names, including our dear Nelson Pass.
So don't put words in my mouth that Passion=cr*p because it's not so.
But many can't
, so we find tons of people , often in Forums, with very passionate views, who get into heated arguments with each other, but can offer little else, and retort to "I can hear things you don't".
Against which there's not much arguing, it often becomes an article of Faith.
Not my cup of tea.
If you look at my postings, I am always the boring "feet on the ground" guy who tries to help people, among other things, to actually build stuff, use commercially available parts, etc. and to "walk before you run".
As of training, I am an Industrial Engineer who, parallel to University studies, started building PA and Musical Instrument Amplifiers in 1969 and have never stopped.
Beginning with cloning Fender and Ampeg , and then, as studies progressed, designing my own.
Also added 2 years of Electronics Engineering because my teen age Hobby turned into a Career and then 1 year of Business Administration and I needed both, to design my own and to handle the disgusting but necessary $$$ side.
Which includes Taxes, Salaries, Financing, Cost Estimates, workers social Laws/retirement plans/Health Coverage which are obligatory by Law in Argentina.
Most "pure Engineers" are great at the Lab or the design table (which now is a PC but when I started was an actual drawing table with parallel rulers, and the "printer" was thin pencil and Rotring applied India Ink) but fail miserably at the $$$ side of things or have to work for a Corporation, cursing and bitching at the "bean counters" who kill their creativity.
Well, I made my own small company and am my own bean counter, how's that ?
What I achieved is nothing compared to World giants such as Fender, Marshall, Peavey and other heavyweights but I'm a force to be considered in Argentina and neighbouring Countries, plus selling amplifiers in all of America and even some in Spain, France, Italy and Holland.
How many?
Lost count at around 10000 (yes, ten thousand, it's not a typo) some 10/15 years ago, when an Argentine Crisis (one of many) made me lose my Factory.
Started again of course (can't do anything else and never ever worked for a salary) in a smaller scale, with just 1 or 2 workers.
Now I'm semi retired, and on my free time hang out in Tech Forums (where else
) , both helping whomever I can and learning.
Yes, still learning, of course, you can never stop.
I could hold for so long (and still do) because I've always had a strong diversified Industrial base, way beyond mere Electronics, which allowed me to design and make my own custom parts, such as:
1) I design, silkscreen, etch, drill and populate my own PCBs
2) design and wind my own transformers
3) cut, bend, punch, chemically treat, paint and silkscreen my own chassis and panels.
Have shears, folders, sheet metal punchers, mechanical press dies, riveters, bench drills, hot air painting and drying cabin, paint curing oven, etc.
Used to have my own Zinc Galvanizing tanks, but sold them after 1 month for fear of Lung Cancer.
Which, by the way, and ex Partner is fighting now
Incredibly toxic fumes.
Still have the Phosphatizing tanks.
Also toxic but as long as I don't drink it and use heavy gloves, no problem.
4) do in house all Carpentry, Tolexing and cabinet finishing, for speakers and Electronics.
Used to have a resin + fiberglass spraying machine to cover PA cabinets, but lost it in a fire and never bought another.
It also had terrible fumes and MEK passes through any realistic mask, eating your lungs and brain.
5) design and build my own speakers.
Not speaker
cabinets but the speakers themselves.
Stamp frames, stamp and turn disks, polepieces, build the speakers, wind my own voice coils, etc.
I subcontract some of the jobs "outside", such as stamping.
I have bought many machines along the time, they always paid for themselves, sooner or later, but a 60 to 250 Ton hydraulic press is a little too much, even for me
, so I rent one by the hour at a Car Parts Factory.
And as I said, I'm happy to have somebody else Galvanize for me.
What kind of stuff I make?:
Guitar/Bass/Keyboard/PA/battery portable amplifiers, speaker cabinets, Studio equipment (such as earphone monitoring systems, with 8 to 20 stereo headphone outputs), preamps and built in electronics for crazy instruments, from Sticks to Stereo Bass to Classic Piano pickup systems to Violin or Harmonica dedicated Amps to .... you name it.
Plus specialized PA systems for the Buenos Aires and the Rosario Planetarium, the Moscow Circus, Broadway type Theaters, etc.
If you get into my FB page, you'll see 95% of my Friends have a Guitar or Bass hanging from their necks, are sitting at a keyboard or are Recording Studio, Radio or TV Techs.
And if you were Argentine, you'd recognize most of them as the Who's Who of Argentine Musicians for the last 40 years.
Well, I gess that's enough for now.
EDIT: I forgot: I have built and still use 2 magnetizers (couldn't make speakers otherwise) with capacity up to 150mm Ferrite rings, which allows me to make Celestion and Eminence/Jensen type speakers.
Now I'm making a larger one, capacitive discharge type, for 190/225mm rings, (to clone large PA type EV/JBL/etc.) and start experimenting with NEO magnets.
