[silvervarg]

This is basicly what I answer to this (or similar questions when asked):

You can think of DIY in two ways:
1. You want to earn money by making stuff yourself, but you don't think it is fun. In this scenario you should count your time spent and compare with what you earn on your regular job. I can't see any way to make DIY profitable counting this way, even if you already have all the tools.

2. You love electronics, building stuff, making nice boxes for them and learn new stuff etc. So, this is part of your hobby. A hobby should per definition be allowed to cost money.
Compare with other hobbies and how much you spend per hour on other hobbies, lets say $10 per hour.
When you build something like a headphone amp withdraw $10 per hour from the component cost. Quite quickly the cost is way below zero (at least for all my projects so far). Counting this way you quickly see this as the most profitable/economical hobby you got.

 

[DaKi][er]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voodoochile Thnks for adding the '-aholic' to the end of that, I appreciate it. Where does the support group meet? Oh yeah, right here.

Having a support group in here is like having weight watchers meetings in McDonalds

 

[sbelyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaKi][er Having a support group in here is like having weight watchers meetings in McDonalds

Everythime I come in here I think I'm not going to build anymore amps. (yeah right)

 

[__redruM]

No it doesn't

DIY in theory/on paper, looks like it will save you money, but in pratice it never does.

If you have the tools, and the soldering experience, a Mint will give you the most value. Its simple and comes close to the $400 amp in performance, for about $70.

Otherwise building a cMoy is the best first step. But before you run up to radioshack, do an eBay search on cMoy. You'll find that you can buy one for around what it will cost to build it yourself.

 

[jamayfie]

I'm going to have to go with no. In principal, once you made the investment in tools, it would save you money. In practice, I find it impossible to actually stick to the original plans, with $10 more here for a better volume pot and $20 more there for copper RCA jacks. Yes, a well designed $200 DIY amp will sound better than a $400 off-the-shelf product because you're paying for improved parts quality instead of R&D, marketing, bricks and mortar. But every time I try to build a $200 dollar product, I end up spending $400 (but getting something more like an $800 product). So, did I save money over buying the $800 product? Yes. But did I save money over the $400 product I was targeting? No.

Then there's the time lost. Fortunately, I don't get paid well, so the hours spent planning and building don't cost me much, but for someone else....

Oh well. It's a hobby. And I think healthier than my old hobby of worrying about whether I should fill my speaker stands with river sand from the Mississippi or the Nile.

 

[dsavitsk]

Everybody else has commented, so I guess I will too ...

There are several types of DIY. If you are joing to buy and build a kit (Bottlehead, Welborne, Mapletree), or a kit-like project (Hagtech, Pimeta/PPA/Mint, etc) and that is all you are going to do, it will save money over a similar commercial project. For instance, Headroom charges from $650 to $1450 for a Millett Hybrid. You could easily build one that is as good or better for $200 to $350. Even incuding the cost of a meter and some solder, that is a big savings.

However, if you have an inclination to learn how parts interact, how to design a project, etc. it will cost tons more. It may be that the parts used in a project are not that expensive, but I find that I often remove and trash nearly as many parts as I use simply because I want to try a different brand of caps or resistors, etc. Further, sometimes when you design and build something, it just doesn't sound that good. So, for me anyway, it is in the experimentation that the real costs are incurred.

As a final note, if you buy a Pass Labs amp used, you should be able to sell it for about what you paid. If you build a Pass labs amp from released schematics, it probably going to be a hard sell.

 

[diablo9]

thanks go to everyone, I started this thread not expecting so many excellent advices. As a guy really love building and figuring out the mechanisms behind the things, I am already step on this road, with no turning back, probably,

 

[Voodoochile]

You definitely should not get into DIY for the sole purpose of saving money. It won't happen. If you are really into it, and have a lot of the tools already, you can save some cash, but not much.

It's all about an enjoyable pastime, not trying to save a few bucks. And it beats doing a paint-by-number velvet elvis any day!

[size=xx-small]PS: I just got the last box of parts for my tubed phono stage...

"somebody throw me a frikking life preserver"[/size]

 

[johnnyb]

First post, but I've been doing DIY audio for a couple of years now. I think it is totally about the journey, not the end result. Everytime I finish a project, I want to start another one, or I want to improve upon the one I just finished. So, don't focus on the end result -- just enjoy all the hours you'll spend shopping for boutique parts, or checking out new designs, or fiddling with your creation until it sounds right. Also, the real charm of DIY is to be able to do something unique, not just replicate some commercial product "on the cheap".