Beefy
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2008
- Posts
- 2,696
- Likes
- 253
Quote:
I think that the point about design stringency ties very heavily in with this. Commercial products with a decent size market are often looked at by larger engineering teams. Consider the Denon 3805 mentioned above....... Denon can expect to sell a LOT of those, share technology between higher and lower end models etc etc. A commercial headphone amp will likely be designed by one person. Often, it will be a one-off design with little shared tech or components.
Bigger markets like speaker amps, you can expect the difference to be a lot less than with headphones.
Personally, I DIY because I enjoy building things - probably moreso than I enjoy listening to them. Sure, I could work more hours, earn more money and easily buy a 'better' commercial amp. But seriously, who wants to work more? I'd rather work less, have more fun, and come out with something I can be proud of.
Originally Posted by randytsuch /img/forum/go_quote.gif Headphone products, especially amps are a natural diy. They are relatively simple things, and with a low demand. Because of the low demand, a manufacturer has to sell it at a higher cost, to pay for his engineering with fewer product sales. |
I think that the point about design stringency ties very heavily in with this. Commercial products with a decent size market are often looked at by larger engineering teams. Consider the Denon 3805 mentioned above....... Denon can expect to sell a LOT of those, share technology between higher and lower end models etc etc. A commercial headphone amp will likely be designed by one person. Often, it will be a one-off design with little shared tech or components.
Bigger markets like speaker amps, you can expect the difference to be a lot less than with headphones.
Personally, I DIY because I enjoy building things - probably moreso than I enjoy listening to them. Sure, I could work more hours, earn more money and easily buy a 'better' commercial amp. But seriously, who wants to work more? I'd rather work less, have more fun, and come out with something I can be proud of.