Hello folks! This forum allows me to conduct a little survey that occurred to me recently: does anyone still do any DIY? It seems to have died the death, largely, or has it just sunk off the magazine radar? Has it been replaced by tweaking and advanced setup stuff?

Yes, I do DIY myself but then being professionally involved in audio and an ex-professional electronics engineer I can't really regard myself as typical. So I'm fascinated to know.....

Richard

Hi Richard,

to be honest I stick to tweaking (which I do endlessly) I'm a bit too afraid of DIY. My last attempt at DIY was homemade speaker supports, but I ditched that substandard effort for something professionally made as soon as I could afford it.

Maybe if I had more time, actually no, I still think I'd just maek a hash of it!

I don't do any DIY and very little tweaking - mainly through lack of confidence and fear that I diminsh the quality by changing any set up.

well you're not doing too well on replies so far Richard. maybe everyone's forgotten what DIY is!

John, you may be right.... sad in way, but then the economic raison d'etre of DIY has pretty much evaporated: gone are the days when it was all many people could afford! Well, as I said, I was just curious.

Have a good Bank Hols weekend, folks, and here's hoping for the weather picking up a bit!

hi made a cracking set of speakers a few years back sounded great looked c--p
wife not happy !!"!
just got quad11 (birds eyemaple)
wife happy me to if i am honest

I make my own speakers.

Until now from existing designs, but I always change the enclosure to my own liking.

I intend to make a pair up myself some time.

And I tweak my cd-player (marantz cd 63 KI). With the new stuff nowadays I do not dare touch it, because it is all so tiny.

I've been a life-long tweaker of just about anything and everything I've had. To be honest a lot of what passes for equipment leaves me stone cold.
Tried valves and loved it but ended up going back solid-state. The valve amp was a very modified Rogers and I just could not find reasonable priced ECC807's to revalve with when one developed an internal short.
I tried the recommended replacement of ECC83 and rewired base, it just didn't sound the same and after that my heart wasn't in it anymore.
I think the comment about prices tells the story in the main, why go to the trouble of diy when you can now days pay less for something than what you can pay for raw materials to build your own.
Having seen what comes out of China its even more of a no-brainer for most people unless you happen to like expending blood, sweat and tears to see something of your own creation working.
Those of us left tinkering appear to be in decline and not catered for by the mainstream. Hi-fi World are the only regular magazine with anykind of interest in this area as far as I can tell although the web is alive with sites that expound diy.

Couldn't agree more Gary. I love the idea of DIY, but practically speaking there's little incentive these days since a) it won't save you money, and b) it takes a lot of time.

Hi Guys<

I've just completed a power amp that I built from a kit from WNA over a weekend. Altough the total cost will be near £300 quid includng tools the sound that comes from this baby is awesome and would cost at least as much and probably more to buy in completed form. The great part is your paying for a hobby as well as audiophile quality hi-fi at the same time. The amp I end up with will be a one off unit, built into whatever enclosure I choose as opposed to a characterless hunk of white-goods and gives me immense pleasure both in terms of sonics and in knowing that "I built that"

The bottom line is DIY hifi is very much alive (google it) and if your the sort of person that enjoyed lego or airfix kits and your after hi quality hifi at low relative cost (google gainclone- $1400 amp for $100 or less!) and a hobby its the way to go.

ben

(ps its easy too, especially if you start with a small kit like a headphone amp)

I would like to do alot of the stuff myself too. For example, I would like to make my own receiver with select type of codecs and i/o's. But where do one begin doing this type of thing. Right now I am only playing with computer and some of the profesional cards out there is outrageously priced.

If you can point me in the right direction, that would be helpful.

I know this topic is a tad on the old side, but I thought - what the hell, will add to it..
Made my very own dipole ariel, as suggested in Hifi world I think it was, to focus on BBC radio 2 (89.3). Will post the results when I have connected it to my system, still converting the loft to a "music room".
Steve

Sounds interesting Steve - did it cost you much? Let us know if it makes much of a difference.

Dave,
Didn't cost that much.. The alloy tube was from B&Q, 1.98 for a metre length and needed 2 lengths... I used 75ohn sky co-axial cable, as recommended in hi-fi world, that was about 4 quid, and connectors n pins etc, another couple of quid..
It was in Decembers issue of Hi fi world (Vol.15 No.10) and allows you to calculate for the exact frequency you require.
Stay posted for test results, hopefully soon!

OK Guys..
Di-pole ariel... I have installed the ariel, got it pointing to near as dammit to sutton colefield, which for where I live, is the better transmitter - and "boom", I can now get BBC Radio 2 like I have never had it before! So in my case, it is a mod worth doing!
However, there is a slight niggle.. When tuned in "stereo", there is a slight background hiss, and I mean slight... But when manually tune it, so that it is not in stereo, the hiss goes, but obviously it is not in stereo - thus lose the stereoness (is that a word??? it is now!) sound.
I am considering a possible filter of some kind to filter out the background noise. Does anyone have any suggestions??
Steve

DIY is the best way for interconnects and speaker cable. You can pretty much match anything up to £30 per metre using simple designs and networking cable.

I've made aerials too. Couple of kit amplifiers and I built a PC that was oriented towards audio.

I think there's quite a lot of DIY but it's largely ignored in home cinema circles.

Not quite the same kind of DIY but I have just managed to install and tune-in my own Freesat equipment.
I am really chuffed that I made the effort and succeeded, so 'long live DIY.'

I made my own loudspeakers. It wasn't much fun working out crossover frequencies and cabinet sizes etc, though it was very rewarding to hear something I had made myself. Of course, the best thing about DIY speakers is that your can tune them to your own liking.

I don't think I'll ever have the patience to make my own speakers, just as I prefer the work of professional decorators and my wife's cooking to my own. I admire those people who can do it themselves though. Didn't DIY used to be a much more prevalent occurance in hi-fi? Has it withered in the face of cheap mass-manufacturing techniques which have driven prices down, or are people simply too busy these days to bother? And is AV set-up complicated enough when it comes out of a box let alone creating it yourself?
Just a few thoughts that occasionally keep me awake at night...