Feck this, I've had enough.

[SteveTheShadow]

Hi Stu,
It’s too easy with this DIY hi-fi lark to get sucked into a never ending cycle of faffing about and still ending up with nothing to show for your efforts but mediocre performance. In many ways this is worse than box-swapping with commercial products. At least if you swap commercial products in and out if your system, there is a chance of reducing your financial losses by selling on the stuff you have decided does not quite give the sonic nirvana you wanted.

With DIY there is no such easy escape route; you just end up with piles of dismantled crap everywhere and boxes of shagged out capacitors, resistors with broken off leads and transformers and chokes going rusty in the shed. There’s nothing as sorry looking as a busted up amp chassis with half the bits missing. These things crouch in corners like malevolent entities, pissing themselves laughing at the hapless fool who thought he could make a better sound than the professionals and save himself a bit of money in the process - yeah right! You spend ten times the dosh you could have spent buying a nice little system from Richer Sounds, being content with that and spending the rest on records and a streaming subscription to Apple, Qobuz Spotify or whatever.

A spare room in our house has been left looking like a fecking bomb has hit it, due to my antics and like you, last week I thought, ‘sod this for a game of soldiers. I’ve had it up to here with this game!’ I was just going to fade away gently from the DIY and its forum scene, but seeing your thread, I see that I’m not alone.

One problem with the DIY scene is dogma. In some ways it’s worse than the Linn/Naim, Flat Earth bollocks we all love to hate. After getting pissed off with my umpteenth single ended triode amp and whining about it on my usual forum, the admin of that forum, gently suggested I start to think for myself a bit and do what I personally wanted to do in terms of design, rather than slavishly following the dogma that has developed around DIY tube amplification over the past twenty years or so.

Tube amp dogma 101:
Tube rectifiers are essential for top sound.
Single-ended is better than push pull.
Direct heated single-ended triodes are essential for top sound.
Pentodes and ultralinear configured pentodes cannot sound good because they need feedback and feedback is a no-no if you want top sound.
ALPS pots sound shite (OK, that’s just a jest.)

Some people are perfectly happy with their SETs and I would argue that they are the people who get them, and realise that getting great sound from them costs serious money and they are prepared to lay out the dosh needed to achieve what they want. I’ve no argument with that and indeed their creations sound fabulous. BUT at my level it’s not gonna happen. It never could and now I realise why

So with this single ended ultra-linear amp with two feedback loops and a solid state bridge rectifier (horrors ) I’ve built the last amp I’m going to build. Yes, there I’ve said it! People who know me might say they’ve heard it all before, but I say to them that they’ve heard from me for the final time about stuff like this.

I’m lucky in that the low power of my amp is perfectly suited to the hi-efficiency Fane, single driver speakers, but TBH, they are not the best match for more powerful class B type amps like NVA. I guarantee you’d be pissed off within five minutes of spinning your first Motown, soul, or funk record!

I would suggest that if you want to continue with DIY, you cut the NVA channels down to two, put them in a nice box and make it integrated like the old AP range. Our Ant would probably be willing to make a great looking box for you. After that buy a pair of nice speakers from RS and there you go.

[Theo]

As I've got older (63 soon), I found myself listening to the main system less (sometimes not at all for a week), but my Mac/Dali Katch bluetooth speaker more - up to 8 hours a day. I enjoy discovering new music but I'm buying less of it. I want to improve my vinyl playback but wonder why because I so rarely play it. Sometimes I just want to sell the whole lot but talk myself out of it.

I don't know the answer. I LOVE music, but I've fallen out of love with the equipment: it's of less importance now.

I do wonder if this could be an age/mortality crisis? Or perhaps a winter blues thing?

[antonio66]

No point chucking money at a percieved 'problem' stu, if you are completely burned out at the teeth knashing frustration that you have been experiencing, pissing a load of money up the wall will not make you happy.
It took me 20 years to get to where i am with my system and countless thousands. Countless amp builds. Countless tt builds. Countless speaker builds. Countless different arm builds.
Quite frankly, i dont listen to my system very much. I dont sit down infront of it like i used to poring over the sound. Its a maddening experience that makes you miserable.
For a long time i didnt listen to it, and a little pure dab radio was what was on all the time until my wife could no longer listen to it because of the news bulletins screwing up her fragile mental health. I never gave a shit about how it sounded because its not meant to sound great. But i discovered lots of new music.
Never throw money at a problem irrespective of wether you have loads or a little, its pointless if you dont know what you are trying to achieve.

Listen to bluetooth speaker and enjoy it. Why would you not?

Dont listen to other opinions on an internet either, no matter how well meaning and/or trusted they might be because those opinions arent formed by what you are experiencing.
You will simply end up on the same treadmill trying to spend your way off it until you have figured out what exactly it is that you want
In fact, dont listen to me either. My opinion is just as irrelevant



Edit: nothing in this post is meant to offend other people who have posted above, it is meant to illustrate the point that you simply do no know what you are chasing after and the frustration of this has for the moment killed all enjoyment you get out of music. You need to figure out what you want first then go from there.
If the bt speaker makes you happy and wanting to listen, THATS ABSOLUTELY FINE

So, what I am going through now seems to be more common than I thought. It is sad that you don't listen to your system much. Is that just a phase or something more permanent?

For my own sanity I need to cut all ties to what I was doing before. The kef idea is like you say - throwing money at the problem. It was just the first answer that sprang to mind. On further research I find other products which are cheaper and will probably serve my needs better.

What I do know is all my vinyl and cd's are going in storage. The vast array of gear and parts I have will be sold, given away or binned. The NVA stuff I have will of course be offered here first after paying the fee. I have AP20, Phono1, BMU, two sets of LS6, two and a half pairs of TIS, six amplifier boards. The rest will be of more universal appeal so pfm. It's all going, yes EVERYTHING. I need my life back. It may take years to get all this moved on but whatever cash I get will pay for whatever wireless product I end up with plus some drums maybe.

I just hope my obsession is not just channeled somewhere else like a drum fetish. I think I am just that type of person who has to obsess about something. Maybe Pamela Anderson would be a more healthy obsession?

[karatestu]

Hi Stu,
It’s too easy with this DIY hi-fi lark to get sucked into a never ending cycle of faffing about and still ending up with nothing to show for your efforts but mediocre performance. In many ways this is worse than box-swapping with commercial products. At least if you swap commercial products in and out if your system, there is a chance of reducing your financial losses by selling on the stuff you have decided does not quite give the sonic nirvana you wanted.

With DIY there is no such easy escape route; you just end up with piles of dismantled crap everywhere and boxes of shagged out capacitors, resistors with broken off leads and transformers and chokes going rusty in the shed. There’s nothing as sorry looking as a busted up amp chassis with half the bits missing. These things crouch in corners like malevolent entities, pissing themselves laughing at the hapless fool who thought he could make a better sound than the professionals and save himself a bit of money in the process - yeah right! You spend ten times the dosh you could have spent buying a nice little system from Richer Sounds, being content with that and spending the rest on records and a streaming subscription to Apple, Qobuz Spotify or whatever.

A spare room in our house has been left looking like a fecking bomb has hit it, due to my antics and like you, last week I thought, ‘sod this for a game of soldiers. I’ve had it up to here with this game!’ I was just going to fade away gently from the DIY and its forum scene, but seeing your thread, I see that I’m not alone.

One problem with the DIY scene is dogma. In some ways it’s worse than the Linn/Naim, Flat Earth bollocks we all love to hate. After getting pissed off with my umpteenth single ended triode amp and whining about it on my usual forum, the admin of that forum, gently suggested I start to think for myself a bit and do what I personally wanted to do in terms of design, rather than slavishly following the dogma that has developed around DIY tube amplification over the past twenty years or so.

Tube amp dogma 101:
Tube rectifiers are essential for top sound.
Single-ended is better than push pull.
Direct heated single-ended triodes are essential for top sound.
Pentodes and ultralinear configured pentodes cannot sound good because they need feedback and feedback is a no-no if you want top sound.
ALPS pots sound shite (OK, that’s just a jest.)

Some people are perfectly happy with their SETs and I would argue that they are the people who get them, and realise that getting great sound from them costs serious money and they are prepared to lay out the dosh needed to achieve what they want. I’ve no argument with that and indeed their creations sound fabulous. BUT at my level it’s not gonna happen. It never could and now I realise why

So with this single ended ultra-linear amp with two feedback loops and a solid state bridge rectifier (horrors ) I’ve built the last amp I’m going to build. Yes, there I’ve said it! People who know me might say they’ve heard it all before, but I say to them that they’ve heard from me for the final time about stuff like this.

I’m lucky in that the low power of my amp is perfectly suited to the hi-efficiency Fane, single driver speakers, but TBH, they are not the best match for more powerful class B type amps like NVA. I guarantee you’d be pissed off within five minutes of spinning your first Motown, soul, or funk record!

I would suggest that if you want to continue with DIY, you cut the NVA channels down to two, put them in a nice box and make it integrated like the old AP range. Our Ant would probably be willing to make a great looking box for you. After that buy a pair of nice speakers from RS and there you go.

I can relate to all that Steve I too have stuff laying about at the farm in various states of completeness that won't be worth anything. Probably will just get binned.

It's a shit business.......

No more DIY then Steve ? Not even discussion there of ?

[Theo]

As I've got older (63 soon), I found myself listening to the main system less (sometimes not at all for a week), but my Mac/Dali Katch bluetooth speaker more - up to 8 hours a day. I enjoy discovering new music but I'm buying less of it. I want to improve my vinyl playback but wonder why because I so rarely play it. Sometimes I just want to sell the whole lot but talk myself out of it.

I don't know the answer. I LOVE music, but I've fallen out of love with the equipment: it's of less importance now.

I do wonder if this could be an age/mortality crisis? Or perhaps a winter blues thing?

Hi Theo. You seem to be another one who this thread has given the guts to confess that hifi isn't doing the business for them anymore. This thread is turning into some form of group therapy

There is no shame with your position Theo. Why not flog the lot and be rid of the nagging voices in your head. On jazz fm they have a little feature called jazz music news. I have started taking note of the suggestions and new music coming out. Seems a better way to spend my time.

Anybody else want to take this opportunity to own up to anythjng ? No judgement, just a warm glowing feeling of knowing you are around like minded individuals who want to help. A bit like alcoholics anonymous What gets said in hifi dissatisfaction club stays in hifi dissatisfaction club

[CN211276]

As I've got older (63 soon), I found myself listening to the main system less (sometimes not at all for a week), but my Mac/Dali Katch bluetooth speaker more - up to 8 hours a day.

I am a similar age but very different. My average listening is probably a bit less than eight hours a day and comprises the main system, headphones and the second system in that order. The bluetooth is only for barbacues and taking on holiday. Since retiring nearly five years ago I have had a lot more time to listen to music. This coincided with my discovery of NVA and moving into a detached house. Two channel has always been important to me even with the second system where the listening position is at a right angle to the speakers. Cubettes are a massive improvement over P&S in this set up. When we moved and down sized I ripped my vast CD collection and sold them along with the CD players.

[Theo]

Hobbies are not supposed to be sensible. Just bring all your unwanted hifi to me.

On a more serious note, we've just been through Brexit, Covid, extreme weather, and now there's a war in Europe. Add in rising taxes, fuel set to double in price, and a chancellor with £200 million of personal wealth telling us that ordinary people will have to pay. It's not entirely surprising that many of us are craving simplicity in our lives, including fewer boxes and a less critical style of listening.

[CN211276]

On a more serious note, we've just been through Brexit, Covid, extreme weather, and now there's a war in Europe. Add in rising taxes, fuel set to double in price, and a chancellor with £200 million of personal wealth telling us that ordinary people will have to pay. It's not entirely surprising that many of us are craving simplicity in our lives,

We were having this conversation in a pub yesterday watching Cheltenham. The concencus was that we were glad we were young at the time we were, the 80s, and not now.

[karatestu]

Hobbies are not supposed to be sensible. Just bring all your unwanted hifi to me.

On a more serious note, we've just been through Brexit, Covid, extreme weather, and now there's a war in Europe. Add in rising taxes, fuel set to double in price, and a chancellor with £200 million of personal wealth telling us that ordinary people will have to pay. It's not entirely surprising that many of us are craving simplicity in our lives, including fewer boxes and a less critical style of listening.

I would have to bring the tractor and trailer to Durham in order to fit if it all in.

Good point about covid, war, storms, brexit, cost of living, a government who are proud to be bent. I do wonder if all that has been a catalyst. I hope it's not a mid life crisis I'll be buying a motorbike or convertible next

Yeah I want simplicity and I want it now. I nearly went shopping today, glad I didn't now as the Kef's were a knee jerk reaction. One box and a cheaper one at that will do what I want.

[karatestu]

There will be no more diy here. No more traditional hifi and no more physical software. I want it all gone. A good reason to be so vocal about it here is I won't be able to talk myself out of it.

I can still enjoy music and discovering new stuff. Discovering new music has never been easier and I can do it from this tablet and sofa. In fact I will enjoy the music more when all the expectation and baggage is gone.