Nah, I don't treat this as a hobby, I have this pair of speaker that my Acurus is not good enough. So I want to build another amp that is better to match the speaker. So I am not going to buy another pair of speaker. Electronics is my hobby, not necessary audiophile. I think I build enough things to know that I can build a good enough one IF I know what to build. The question is what to build.
I am more referring to guitar amps, I was thinking about going into business at one time for the fun of it as I retired. Then I have to worry about what people like, not what I like. Changing a little on a resistor or capacitor value does not mean much in terms of circuits, just a little difference in frequency response. But that changes the sound quite a bit. So it is more about the sound, listening to the sound rather than knowing the theory. There are so many people in guitar amp world that really don't know electronics and they managed to get a famous amp out.
Yes, you gain experience in what to change to get certain sound, but you really don't use electronics much on guitar amp. That's the reason there are a lot of tinkerers rather than engineers. And you'll be surprised the founder of some famous amps are not engineers, but rather musicians that tinker with amps. I don't even use my scope most of the time, only pull it out when I need to trouble shoot. Scope image almost doesn't mean anything for working on guitar amp a lot of the time.
Audiophile seems to be better in this respect, more science and engineering involved. But still, sound and electronics have a disconnect.
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Ha ha, if you look at schematics of guitar amps, mostly just copy and slightly modified from the original Fender Black Face circuit or Marshall Plexi circuit ( which is a close copy of the original Fender 59 Bassman.). Other than a few changes of resistor and capacitor values, they look almost the same!!! It is all tweaking, not designing. To make a good sounding amp, you need to have the golden ears that you can remember what you hear, AND be able not to have your ears adapt to a sound.
I think here is a lot more interesting. People get into theory a lot more and I think people use a lot more theory in Audiophile amps. At least it makes a lot more sense than guitar amps. In guitar amps, you talk about how to make distorted sound sounds good!!! Mostly it's just trial and error. Yes, there are some theory, but far and feel in between.
Classic guitar amps are most often designed to add distortion and take full advantage of the way tubes react when over driven.
Back in the '70s a musician friend decided to have the amp in his Leslie converted to a high power SS amp against me warning him not to do so.
Long story short ...
It made his Hammond C3 sound way too clean and loose the classic Hammond sound. So he put the stock Leslie tube amp back in .
Back in the '70s a musician friend decided to have the amp in his Leslie converted to a high power SS amp against me warning him not to do so.
Long story short ...
It made his Hammond C3 sound way too clean and loose the classic Hammond sound. So he put the stock Leslie tube amp back in .
I've built several guitar amps and since I don't have golden ears, I've had friends who play guitars help me with voicing them.
I ran gain and phase plots of the results and from them can see what has to be done to make an acceptable guitar amp.
From there it was easy to design the amp to do what the friends wanted.
I ended up giving several amps to friends because I don't want the liability that goes with selling amps.
My biggest fear in selling amps would be years down the line an amp gets traded and sold several times and ends up in the hands of some teenager who decides to show off his quitar-foo at a pool party. To get close enough he uses two wire extension cords from a poorly grounded outlet, gets splashed and becomes part of a closed circuit.
Then I get the blame. Even If I prove I was not responsible in any way, I'm still out the attorney cost and all the associated stress.
Just not worth it.
I ran gain and phase plots of the results and from them can see what has to be done to make an acceptable guitar amp.
From there it was easy to design the amp to do what the friends wanted.
I ended up giving several amps to friends because I don't want the liability that goes with selling amps.
My biggest fear in selling amps would be years down the line an amp gets traded and sold several times and ends up in the hands of some teenager who decides to show off his quitar-foo at a pool party. To get close enough he uses two wire extension cords from a poorly grounded outlet, gets splashed and becomes part of a closed circuit.
Then I get the blame. Even If I prove I was not responsible in any way, I'm still out the attorney cost and all the associated stress.
Just not worth it.
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