tomb
Member of the Trade: Beezar.com
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Quote:
Pete never implied the use of "junk" parts in the Starving Student. Inexpensive doesn't equate to "junk."
As for the recent refinements, typically a PCB opens a circuit design to many more people, having a bit of the "paint-by-number" aspect of putting together the circuit. That adds $10 to the cost in the case of the Starving Student. The real increase in complexity and cost comes in the case. However, that's less than $10 over the price of a $20 Hammond standard. There again, the purpose is to greatly simplify the skills required compared to a flexible, yet difficult decision and skills process involved in combining heat sink requirements with a free-choice case design.
The tradeoff for this little bit of extra expense (~$30) is greater ease of construction, allowing even more people than before to build one with minimal variances that could detract from the quality result. I don't think any of that is a divergence from Pete's original theme: a quality, affordable tube-hybrid headphone amp design meant to be easily achievable to the greatest number of possible builders.
| Originally Posted by kvant /img/forum/go_quote.gif <snip>Of course, that would not have anything in common with this "starving student" project to be made out of junk-box parts any more. But then again, the PCBs, custom ordered pre-drilled enclosures etc. discussed here don't either. |
Pete never implied the use of "junk" parts in the Starving Student. Inexpensive doesn't equate to "junk."
As for the recent refinements, typically a PCB opens a circuit design to many more people, having a bit of the "paint-by-number" aspect of putting together the circuit. That adds $10 to the cost in the case of the Starving Student. The real increase in complexity and cost comes in the case. However, that's less than $10 over the price of a $20 Hammond standard. There again, the purpose is to greatly simplify the skills required compared to a flexible, yet difficult decision and skills process involved in combining heat sink requirements with a free-choice case design.
The tradeoff for this little bit of extra expense (~$30) is greater ease of construction, allowing even more people than before to build one with minimal variances that could detract from the quality result. I don't think any of that is a divergence from Pete's original theme: a quality, affordable tube-hybrid headphone amp design meant to be easily achievable to the greatest number of possible builders.
