sorry, NO, Most the truly state of the art audio components are not possible to build yourself and the components to do so are NOT available. We are talking nowadays about $10K phonocarts, $80K turntables, $10K air bearing tonearms, $20K and up digital CD/SACD rigs, $100K plus loudspeakers etc. Yes, some things are possible to DIY, like amplification. Someone might be able to match the very best at same or lower cost but an audio system needs more than just amplfication, it needs sources and speakers too which as state of the art levels is going to cost maybe $200K or more even if you built your amplication for free.
I contend to build your components that are really as good as these "best available sound at any cost" state of the art category items, you would have to spend a LOT more if possible in most cases, and most likely its not even possible to match them at all for development resource and cost reasons alone, let alone tooling materials and labor involved in one off DIY production. -- J.C. O'Connell (mailto:hifis...@gate.net) Join the CD PLAYER & DISC Discussions : http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cdplayers/ http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/cdsound/ -----Original Message----- From: pdml-boun...@pdml.net [mailto:pdml-boun...@pdml.net] On Behalf Of Joseph McAllister Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2009 5:06 PM To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List Subject: Re: OT: Vinyl vs. Digital - the "all vinyl is noisy" myth, ,exposedinvideo On Nov 15, 2009, at 13:26 , J.C. O'Connell wrote: > you seem to misunderstand, you cant get > state of the art audio gear for low cost, > even if you build it yourself. acutally > its practically impossible to build state > of the art audio gear yourself, there > is too much overhead in R&D and its > not economical to build one-offs, that's > even worse the low production items in > terms of cost per unit. Most of the components in Hi-End audio gear are available readily. There may be a few limited production capacitors or coils. The tubes are available in various qualities. It's the circuit design. The care of construction, and component placement for isolation/minimal wire length/optimum trace thickness and length that is critical in most designs. I can send you photos of the system I was listening to in 07/08, and you will see that the cables, the mains, and elsewhere in the system are handmade and grossly overpriced "doo-dads" installed to enhance (or reduce) system anomalies that in the opinion of the owner made the system sound "better", to him. A 60-something year old with inevitably some hearing loss. He had money, he hadn't worked in years,his kids were through college, and needed something to do to fill his time. The endeavor was one he chose and could afford. The main reason much of the "high-end" gear is expensive is because it has a limited buyer pool, and must be made in very limited quantities or hand built. If you are going to sell 125 units of a custom designed amplifier, and your competition is also low yield and sets a high price, your price is driven up no matter what, lest you be seen as "low-end" gear. Schematics are available for gear the equivalent of much of the commercially available gear at that level. A turntable can be cobbled together that has similar specifications to the very best if you mount an accurate dc servo motor and it's controller on a separate structure, connect it to your platter(doesn't have to be super heavy, just controlled), use your very best $300 cartridge, best wire, a used 10 year old arm that was once a darling, and mount the whole thing hanging from 3 or 4 vertical posts via dozens of old cassette tape player drive belts (rubber bands that don't stretch much). Joseph McAllister pentax...@mac.com I couldn't remember most of what I know today if it weren't for others sharing their knowledge of my past on the Internet. Thank you. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
