Hello everyone who is a part of the diyaudio community and a "Servus" to everyone on here from Austria
Before I introduce myself a huge "thank you" to everyone contributing to this forum since I somehow never created an account despite browsing this forum since soon six years and thus never thanked anyone -PM's coming your way folks, who really helped me and taught me many valuable lessons
I am from Austria and currently located in Vienna. I'm into music since I first dropped a needle on a vinyl record back when I wasn't even in school and couldn't put into words what music made me feel like. Over the years my passion for music also led me to my interest in audio gear which I first took apart to study it, later modified it and then started to build my own. Since I am no audio-wizard like Nelson Pass and others for example, who I greatly respect, I now mostly build tube audio gear since that cannot (easily) be bought and otherwise buy finished products.
If it is not obvious already, I spend many hours of my day listening to music (some who would like me to concentrate more on my studies would say too much) and trying out new gear whenever I get my hands on it or build it myself since I am also into DIY.
Speaking of DIY, so far I built a Firstwatt F5 and F6, a B1 and B1 Nutube, a couple of tube preamps, some using DHT's, but most with E88CC's, four tube phono preamps, two tube headphone amps, both using 6sn7's, two tube power amps, one with KT88's and one with EL34's, modified and recapped CD-Players using either TDA1540's, TDA1541's or TDA1549 (with these I taught myself soldering, desoldering and hot-air soldering), a DSC2.6.2 and DSC2.
It must sound like I spend much time soldering and planning new projects, but in reality most of my time is spent in front of my speakers listening. Mainly to vinyl (out of my steadily growing vinyl collection, of which more than half is classical music), occasionally to music on Qobuz, some music in DSD or PCM if it's just available as download and rarely to music on CD.
After telling you a bit about me you hopefully have a rough picture of my relation to audio. Thus, I would ask you for your advice now and hope you are able to help me in some way or another.
I am currently studying electrical engineering because I thought that this was my way into the HiFi-industry and despite my great interest I now have my doubts that this was the right choice. My reasoning for that being, that I would rather spend most of my time listening to music, different gear and building circuits, be it with tubes or MOSFET's and not studying electrical engineering since I am not certain how much of that knowledge I acquire during my study will be needed for a job in an audio company.
What should I do in your opinion? Do you think I should grit my teeth and continue with my study? Or do you think I should already rather be doing what I really want and would have a chance in the HiFi industry despite not having finished my study?
The most utopic thing I could dream of would of course be not to build and design audio gear, despite my love for it, but to be reviewing it for one of the audio magazines out there, and/or have my own webpage with reviews, maybe even including videos...
It all boils down to two questions: A) Do you think my self-taught skills and knowledge together with what I learned at university so far is enough for me to pursue a career and already start doing what I want? B) If yes, where do I start? (C) Or do you think my dream of reviewing audio gear, sharing knowledge and writing about vinyl is not that utopic at all and I should do that if I am all for it?
I just want to start really contributing to the world of HiFi and audio in some (or multiple) ways and not spend all that time studying, albeit intersting, things in electrical engineering I probably to a great deal will not need later.
At this point I will stop rambling on about myself and my problems and let you reply. Hopefully you, the diyaudio community, are as awesome as always and willing to help me out here, despite that my problem is non-technical, however audio-related.
Please reply here or feel free to send me a PM and we continue the conversation either there or via e-mail.
I will also create a poll for this thread. That is, if I figure out how to do that
Oh and please tell me, if I should have opened this thread in another category, but I thought that that this was the most fitting one.
Many thanks,
an austrian audiophile in need of your help
Before I introduce myself a huge "thank you" to everyone contributing to this forum since I somehow never created an account despite browsing this forum since soon six years and thus never thanked anyone -PM's coming your way folks, who really helped me and taught me many valuable lessons
I am from Austria and currently located in Vienna. I'm into music since I first dropped a needle on a vinyl record back when I wasn't even in school and couldn't put into words what music made me feel like. Over the years my passion for music also led me to my interest in audio gear which I first took apart to study it, later modified it and then started to build my own. Since I am no audio-wizard like Nelson Pass and others for example, who I greatly respect, I now mostly build tube audio gear since that cannot (easily) be bought and otherwise buy finished products.
If it is not obvious already, I spend many hours of my day listening to music (some who would like me to concentrate more on my studies would say too much) and trying out new gear whenever I get my hands on it or build it myself since I am also into DIY.
Speaking of DIY, so far I built a Firstwatt F5 and F6, a B1 and B1 Nutube, a couple of tube preamps, some using DHT's, but most with E88CC's, four tube phono preamps, two tube headphone amps, both using 6sn7's, two tube power amps, one with KT88's and one with EL34's, modified and recapped CD-Players using either TDA1540's, TDA1541's or TDA1549 (with these I taught myself soldering, desoldering and hot-air soldering), a DSC2.6.2 and DSC2.
It must sound like I spend much time soldering and planning new projects, but in reality most of my time is spent in front of my speakers listening. Mainly to vinyl (out of my steadily growing vinyl collection, of which more than half is classical music), occasionally to music on Qobuz, some music in DSD or PCM if it's just available as download and rarely to music on CD.
After telling you a bit about me you hopefully have a rough picture of my relation to audio. Thus, I would ask you for your advice now and hope you are able to help me in some way or another.
I am currently studying electrical engineering because I thought that this was my way into the HiFi-industry and despite my great interest I now have my doubts that this was the right choice. My reasoning for that being, that I would rather spend most of my time listening to music, different gear and building circuits, be it with tubes or MOSFET's and not studying electrical engineering since I am not certain how much of that knowledge I acquire during my study will be needed for a job in an audio company.
What should I do in your opinion? Do you think I should grit my teeth and continue with my study? Or do you think I should already rather be doing what I really want and would have a chance in the HiFi industry despite not having finished my study?
The most utopic thing I could dream of would of course be not to build and design audio gear, despite my love for it, but to be reviewing it for one of the audio magazines out there, and/or have my own webpage with reviews, maybe even including videos...
It all boils down to two questions: A) Do you think my self-taught skills and knowledge together with what I learned at university so far is enough for me to pursue a career and already start doing what I want? B) If yes, where do I start? (C) Or do you think my dream of reviewing audio gear, sharing knowledge and writing about vinyl is not that utopic at all and I should do that if I am all for it?
I just want to start really contributing to the world of HiFi and audio in some (or multiple) ways and not spend all that time studying, albeit intersting, things in electrical engineering I probably to a great deal will not need later.
At this point I will stop rambling on about myself and my problems and let you reply. Hopefully you, the diyaudio community, are as awesome as always and willing to help me out here, despite that my problem is non-technical, however audio-related.
Please reply here or feel free to send me a PM and we continue the conversation either there or via e-mail.
I will also create a poll for this thread. That is, if I figure out how to do that
Oh and please tell me, if I should have opened this thread in another category, but I thought that that this was the most fitting one.
Many thanks,
an austrian audiophile in need of your help
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Hello and Welcome to diyAudio!
That is a comprehensive introduction, probably one of the most detailed ones I've seen. Thanks for the effort you obviously put into writing it.
As for your question, you might get a little more specific direction if you posted in the "Everything else" section. The introductions are generally for folks popping in to say Hi. Though I'm sure you'll get some answers here, there is a little more exposure in some of the interest areas.
However to start you off I'll simply say that many, if not most of our members are not qualified engineers. That doesn't stop them from doing plenty of eye-popping projects though. But those that are, are able to push the entire domain forward.
Conversely, there are plenty of examples of highly qualified and highly skilled engineers, some with tons of experience (counting among them Nelson Pass, Bob Cordell, and Douglas Self) who are/were seen to contribute a massive amount to the forums, well above and beyond what a DIY forum could expect from industry professionals. Another example is Dustin Foreman, who doesn't post much here, but this site was one of the bed warmers for what eventually became the ESS Sabre DAC line.
The point of saying all this is is that I personally think that studies are never wasted, either formal or informal, unless you choose to waste them yourself. I also think that over time, study will itself impart a hunger to learn and explore, and you'll be able to push at the boundaries of the craft.
Or at least that's what it should be. The butterfly is in extreme pain in the cocoon, but afterwards, oh wow!
Good Luck, and I hope you are able to get others to chime in here or elsewhere!
That is a comprehensive introduction, probably one of the most detailed ones I've seen. Thanks for the effort you obviously put into writing it.
As for your question, you might get a little more specific direction if you posted in the "Everything else" section. The introductions are generally for folks popping in to say Hi. Though I'm sure you'll get some answers here, there is a little more exposure in some of the interest areas.
However to start you off I'll simply say that many, if not most of our members are not qualified engineers. That doesn't stop them from doing plenty of eye-popping projects though. But those that are, are able to push the entire domain forward.
Conversely, there are plenty of examples of highly qualified and highly skilled engineers, some with tons of experience (counting among them Nelson Pass, Bob Cordell, and Douglas Self) who are/were seen to contribute a massive amount to the forums, well above and beyond what a DIY forum could expect from industry professionals. Another example is Dustin Foreman, who doesn't post much here, but this site was one of the bed warmers for what eventually became the ESS Sabre DAC line.
The point of saying all this is is that I personally think that studies are never wasted, either formal or informal, unless you choose to waste them yourself. I also think that over time, study will itself impart a hunger to learn and explore, and you'll be able to push at the boundaries of the craft.
Or at least that's what it should be. The butterfly is in extreme pain in the cocoon, but afterwards, oh wow!
Good Luck, and I hope you are able to get others to chime in here or elsewhere!
Thank you very much for the long and thought-trough reply!
I guess the part of your message that I quoted sums it up nicely.
However, I am already very eager to apply my accumulated knowledge and start working and I am unsure whether it is worth going through all of this and if it would be possible to instead deepen my knowledge along the way and learn from the people already working in audio for many years.
I hope the point I am trying to make is getting across.
Thank you very much for the vote and reply
You make a good point here and mechanics is certainly a field where I have to catch up a bit because it is just so vast and important.
Welcome Alps/Audio! You pose some hard questions here, not easy to give a good answer.
I think you should consider the difference between a hobby and making a living. And as soon as you are thinking about making a living in audio, the playing field is radically different to the diyaudio field, and conceptually not much different from many other industry sectors.
If you want to make a living in audio you have to be able to offer something to the world that people (or companies) are willing to pay you for, again and again, enough for a comfortable living. That is not easy.
At any rate, I would strongly recommend you finalize your studies. It will give you much more options in the future.
My € 0.02 worth.
Jan
I think you should consider the difference between a hobby and making a living. And as soon as you are thinking about making a living in audio, the playing field is radically different to the diyaudio field, and conceptually not much different from many other industry sectors.
If you want to make a living in audio you have to be able to offer something to the world that people (or companies) are willing to pay you for, again and again, enough for a comfortable living. That is not easy.
At any rate, I would strongly recommend you finalize your studies. It will give you much more options in the future.
My € 0.02 worth.
Jan
Thank you for the reply!
That is my current plan. Finish my studies first, despite my passion for audio...which brings me to a good point maybe:
Has anyone a suggestion what i could study if I want to work somewhere in a HiFi-company afterwards? Maybe I just have doubts right now because there's a lack of audio-related topics in my current study. However, from all the studies I looked at, electrical engineering seemed to have the most to do with audio gear since it is all about electronics.
Maybe my approach was the wrong one because there is of course no accustics, psychoaccustics, mechanics,...
picowallspeaker made a good point when he wrote:
Or would you say that I should stick with electrical engineering nonetheless and additionally teach myself about all the things I do not learn during my studies?
Maybe I can sum this whole reply up so everyone better understands my problem:
I started to study electrical engineering not because I had interest in the study per se, but rather because I thought that I would learn all the things left that I should know to than later on work in a HiFi-company. However, I discovered that I cannot relate quite a few things to audio and thus I have my doubts. Are they justified?
Or is it rather that I just can't see the relations right now and later on will be thankfull for everything I learned and will be able to apply most of what I learned?
That is my current plan. Finish my studies first, despite my passion for audio...which brings me to a good point maybe:
Has anyone a suggestion what i could study if I want to work somewhere in a HiFi-company afterwards? Maybe I just have doubts right now because there's a lack of audio-related topics in my current study. However, from all the studies I looked at, electrical engineering seemed to have the most to do with audio gear since it is all about electronics.
Maybe my approach was the wrong one because there is of course no accustics, psychoaccustics, mechanics,...
picowallspeaker made a good point when he wrote:
Or would you say that I should stick with electrical engineering nonetheless and additionally teach myself about all the things I do not learn during my studies?
Maybe I can sum this whole reply up so everyone better understands my problem:
I started to study electrical engineering not because I had interest in the study per se, but rather because I thought that I would learn all the things left that I should know to than later on work in a HiFi-company. However, I discovered that I cannot relate quite a few things to audio and thus I have my doubts. Are they justified?
Or is it rather that I just can't see the relations right now and later on will be thankfull for everything I learned and will be able to apply most of what I learned?
@Alps and Audio. I agree with Sangram, picowallspeaker and Jan. Don't stop your studies. Having a good grounding in engineering is important. Electrical engineering can lead to electronics and mechanical engineering. They are all interrelated. Speak to the various faculties, and lecturers, and see if you can look at how they integrate. I never got to a degree (my brain can't handle high level maths and chemistry) unfortunately.
I personally would try and separate my job from my hobby - it can lead to disillusionment, but not always.
Good luck in your endeavours, but most especially DIY audio.
Kevin
I personally would try and separate my job from my hobby - it can lead to disillusionment, but not always.
Good luck in your endeavours, but most especially DIY audio.
Kevin
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Hello A&A, welcome to forum membership after all these years. 
Speaking as an old man who did not attend university but who has spent over 45 years in the entertainment business - get that degree! Finish your studies, because finding a good job can be difficult and most of the people you will be competing against already have the training, even if they don't know how to use it.
EE seems the logical course, but acoustics is just as important. You should know both. Learning acoustics will give you a large advantage in understanding the audio business. And as you are in Vienna, you have some of the worlds finest acoustics at your doorstep.
If you can take any courses in industrial design, that is also quite important.
Speaking as an old man who did not attend university but who has spent over 45 years in the entertainment business - get that degree! Finish your studies, because finding a good job can be difficult and most of the people you will be competing against already have the training, even if they don't know how to use it.
EE seems the logical course, but acoustics is just as important. You should know both. Learning acoustics will give you a large advantage in understanding the audio business. And as you are in Vienna, you have some of the worlds finest acoustics at your doorstep.
If you can take any courses in industrial design, that is also quite important.
in 10...15 years from now there will be no conventional commercial speakers .You will paint your speakers on the walls of your house and activate it with light encoded in the image you see there as the paint will also make your tv screen so your tv screen paint will also sing! Photonics and chemistry will play a great role in that, while all the audio and video electronics will simply be one unique CHIP and probably te people will have to choose among maybe 5 chips on the market doing all audio and video processing and data storage.I'd strongly recommend any future audio enthusiasts to study physics and chemistry instead of electronics .Quantum computers aren't electronic devices and the future is their's.
Hello A&A, welcome to forum membership after all these years.
Speaking as an old man who did not attend university but who has spent over 45 years in the entertainment business - get that degree! Finish your studies, because finding a good job can be difficult and most of the people you will be competing against already have the training, even if they don't know how to use it.
EE seems the logical course, but acoustics is just as important. You should know both. Learning acoustics will give you a large advantage in understanding the audio business. And as you are in Vienna, you have some of the worlds finest acoustics at your doorstep.
If you can take any courses in industrial design, that is also quite important.
I will thanks for the reassuring reply!
I have to agree on the importance of accustics and I am hence currently thinking about what the best is to learn as much as possible in this field besides my EE study.
I know and I therefore go to live concerts whenever possible because there is nothing better than live music with talented musicians (in a good room, of which there are plenty in Vienna).
Despite the fact that I have a little interest in quantum computers, I will not go down that route, but thank you for your vision of the future of audio and what might be important.
Oh and maybe send me a PM, if you are a diyaudio member from Austria or somewhere close to Austria and want too meet up in the summer when the whole pandemic-situation is a bit better and we can think about events like that again.
Just sth. that came to my mind because I am already in contact with some fellow audiophiles, music lovers, musicians, etc. but would like to meet many more people who care about music and sound, exchange ideas, talk about audio and listen to music.
I will of course start a thread somewhen before summer solely for that. But if you happen to stumble upon this post now and already know that you want to participate, then send me a PM and I will put you onto the list
Just sth. that came to my mind because I am already in contact with some fellow audiophiles, music lovers, musicians, etc. but would like to meet many more people who care about music and sound, exchange ideas, talk about audio and listen to music.
I will of course start a thread somewhen before summer solely for that. But if you happen to stumble upon this post now and already know that you want to participate, then send me a PM and I will put you onto the list
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