How hard is it to build your own equipment? I'm sure it varies by type, but generally speaking, are you always tearing your hair out or is it fun and relaxing for you?
Bob Brines Messages: 186 Registered: May 2009 Location: Hot Springs Village, AR
Master
Depends on
1. Your personal interests
2. Your skill level
3. Your frustration tolerance level.
I personally will build speakers all day, do cross-overs when I have to, might consider wiring a tube amp, won't even consider a SS amp, particularly if surface mount components are involved.
Bill Epstein Messages: 1088 Registered: May 2009 Location: Smoky Mts. USA
Illuminati (2nd Degree)
Hi Bob, good to see ya here.
Nymeria, I've been known to fling a capacitor across the room in frustration, but I still keep trying to build electronics 'cause of the "I did it!" factor.
Speaker-building, well...I've been woodworking all my life and I have the basic techniques mostly under control. Still, with every new speaker project, I usually find a previously undiscovered way to screw up. But then, I get to exclaim..."I did it!"
Going from a buyer to a builder is like going from a listener to a player, very satisfying.
Before we talk about the difficulty, it is important that we consider passion. How passionate are you when it comes to building customised sound gear? If you have that desire, you can do it without much hassle. It can only take some time.
gofar99 Messages: 2048 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
I have been building stuff for a very long time. I find it relaxing and challenging at the same time. I always figure I can push the envelop further. No matter what the build is the next one can surely be made better. A classic example is my first tube phono preamp. It was 2008 and it hummed like all get out. It could find an AC source faster than any meter I owned. Certainly not what I had in mind. Through several iterations it now is going to be really difficult to improve. With a ruler flat response (with an inverse RIAA source) from about 8 HZ to about 75KHZ and a S/N of -94DBV it is stellar, but as recently as this morning I tested a few minor changes that might make it better (no changes as it turns out). This shows the rewarding and challenging concepts well. More in regard to the topic, a few thing that were mentioned earlier matter. I consider a basic knowledge the starting point on building anything. You need an understanding of how things work. You will gain more as you progress. Second you need the tools to make it work. Next is a clear idea of what you are trying to do. And the one I consider most important is the willingness to reach out to someone who can provide you guidance. Many folks like those on this web site are glad to assist. A great resource so use it. I get a goodly number of requests for assistance and am glad to help. Sometimes it is my call that what they want to do is either impossible or at a really high skill level and if they were at that level they could certainly do it with out my help.I personally prefer tube based gear but do a fair amount of solid state stuff even a few speakers. One thing that I do usually believe in is that if you can buy something that does what you want to do for significantly less in cost, you really should consider buying it. Not everything on the market is junk.
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Perhaps I should stick with just buying equipment.
