| Happy New Year [message #97292] |
Fri, 29 December 2023 20:50  |
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gofar99
Messages: 1947
Registered: May 2010
Location: Southern Arizona
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Illuminati (5th Degree) |
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I find it enlightening at this time of year to reflect on days gone by. My thoughts went to "where was I 15 years ago?" What was I doing and where am I now? At that time, I was working for a modest sized company as a senior manager. We were in the logistics field and did everything from fueling aircraft to providing food for a large installation. Shortly thereafter I became the General Manager of said company and had the joys of riding herd on about 140 employees. I quit a year later as my goal of long-term financial security was achieved. Since then, my time has been my own. Also, in 2008 I designed the first successful Oddwatt power amplifier. This was a direct consequence of my building a S5 K12 amp in 2006. I found it pleasantly different from the solid-state stuff I had (really good gear BTW) but lacking. I thought it might be fun to do my own thing. I figured that with about 40 years of tinkering with various TVs, PCs and amateur radio devices if ought to be fairly easy. It was not quite as easy as I thought it might be. It took several tries but the prototypes finally were (IMO) better than the K12. From those modest beginnings evolved the entire spectrum of diy projects and commercial products I have created. It was fortunate that I encountered a partner (Rodney) that was good at CAD and had connections with fabricators and component sources. He made the commercial side possible. After the first Oddblocks, I was unsure I could design a good preamp, let alone a tube-based phonograph preamp. It took a while and is still an ongoing passion of mine, but I believe the current versions of either rival equipment with high pedigrees. The same goes for the solid-state devices I have created. All this time I have made it my goal to mentor as many new commers to the arena of diy electronics as possible. I will admit some have been rather challenging. It is rewarding to have some of them already assisting other new commers. They, and not the various pieces of gear, I perceive as my legacy. And no, I don't intend to quit now as there is a whole field of additional devices I want to try my hand at. Hopefully you can look back and find similar good things. I believe that folks involved with diy and especially audio are some of the best folks I know of. It may have been a challenging past few years, but the future awaits and will be as great as we want to make it. Have a great new year.
Good Listening
Bruce
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