• WARNING: Tube/Valve amplifiers use potentially LETHAL HIGH VOLTAGES.
    Building, troubleshooting and testing of these amplifiers should only be
    performed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with
    the safety precautions around high voltages.

Making a living out of tubes? (A little off-topic)

Status
Not open for further replies.
This is on ebay USA, but he was on ebay Canada.

A search on EBay searches the whole eBay market place. I found his amplifier and two other auctions through his Seller page but not when I searched using wavebourn in the search tool. I did find his Seller description which had links to the items. I've bought hundreds of things from all over the world on eBay. I'm a pretty good hunter a bargains on eBay. Something must have glitched. Be cool to have the amp but I don't have any high efficiency speakers. A few Class A watts might sound wonderful but likely not loud enough.
 
Both versions of Edelweiss amps, SE pentode with nested feedbacks, sold. Going to sell 10W per channel 6S19P push-pull, also with nested feedbacks, but with positive feedback loop by current.
Of course, it is not enough for statistics, but some understanding of what is in demand can be obtained, I think...
 
Last edited:
Every now and again I get fed up with my pointless office job, and wonder what would happen if I started a tube / audio company.

I guess what I want to know is, does anyone here make their living out of tubes or audio, and is it possible to do full-time?

The idea is fine.
I have found starting your own business can be troublesome.
1/ Competing with Chinese imports is virtually impossible.
2/ The costs of advertising can be crippling. Creating a website is easy but marketing it can be hard work and costly.
3/ Checking to see what competition there is, is vital. If Joe Bloggs down the road is selling them for peanuts then how do you compete.

Sorry to be so negative but been there and tried it.
I sell PCBCAD software I wrote myself and have to compete with numerous companies/people giving their software away !

I would stick with the safe but boring office job.
 
Anatoly - I was shocked to learn how little you get for your awesome amplifiers on eBay. I doubt you recover your production cost at this price. This price is an insult!

An old POS Scott or Eico amp in non-working condition, and no guarantee of any kind, will often sell for more.
 
I believe that the wavebourn name is unknown to most ebay potential buyers, so they measure the bid according to the way the listing is made. The last Wavebourn prototype sold badly because the ebay listing had very poor actual product pictures and the "prototype" word right in the title.
The last "prototype" tube amp I bought from ebay had the main filter capacitor stuck to the chassis with Blu-tack (really). This is the craftmanship level I picture in my mind when I read the word "prototype" in a ebay listing.
When the amplifier is hand-made and the seller does not publish a clear picture of the inside, I only bid if the price is lower than the value of the transformers. If the transformers are hand-wound, covered with paint or othervise unrecognizable, I dont bid at all.
Pictures are of the utmost importance in a ebay listing. My experience on 15+ years on ebay is that if the seller does not bother to spend 5 minutes to take proper pictures (good lightning, neutral background, you got the idea), it often does not ship the product timely either, ot it rushes it in the box without proper packing.
 
I am going to continue the experiment. ;-)
What I want to know, what kind of amps draw more attention.
I've sold 2 different SE amps, 5 watt output power, and class A PP triode amp.
Now going to sell 20W per channel Gubernator amp, with GK-71 output pentodes.
Then I will decide what kind of production to run...
 
Anatoly - I was shocked to learn how little you get for your awesome amplifiers on eBay. I doubt you recover your production cost at this price. This price is an insult!

An old POS Scott or Eico amp in non-working condition, and no guarantee of any kind, will often sell for more.

Scott and Eico were well advertised, also UL listed and FCC certified. Also, they had technical support. Wavebourn is something unknown (yet), and don't have sales & tech support channels yet. 🙂

It is just a beginning. I am getting feedback from people who got much more than expected. Is not it better than getting less than advertised? 🙄

One of buyers even made some very nice videos!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzx3H4U0968
 
Status
Not open for further replies.