[sdiy] Secrets [Was: Discrete OTA]

[Richard Wentk]

Who said anything about Dolby etc?

I'm talking about power amps made of valves with gold-plated esoteric electrons and unidirectional quark-free cabling - not "a/v."

I'm joking? 

Not entirely.

http://www.machinadynamica.com

Richard

> On 13 Apr 2014, at 18:15, Terry Shultz <thx1138 at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> I can tell you that A/V is not a cheap place to play.
> 
> My Dolby and DTS licenses cost me in excess of $ 30,000.00 before I even build any gear.
> 
> Certification coast are $5k with DTS as another point.
> 
> CE and UL electrical testing is not cheap either.
> 
> I prefer to stay in the Hobby crowd a bit longer I think.
> 
> regards,
> 
> Terry
>> On Apr 13, 2014, at 8:16 AM, Dan Snazelle <subjectivity at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> If you want to make a crap load of money, don't build synth hardware - build high-end hifi, spend money on making a design that looks esoteric and expensive, include some marketing nonsense about exotic components, and sell it for a ridiculous mark-up.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> hmmmmm
>> 
>> 
>> great idea ???
>> 
>> 
>> ;)
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>>> On Apr 12, 2014, at 5:47 PM, "Richard Wentk" <richard at wentk.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Compiler - depends on the platform. You can build (say) VSTs with free tools. It's a huge pain in the ass, but it is possible. 
>>> 
>>> Xcode on the Mac is free. Mingw on Windows is free. There are various free toolchains on Linux.
>>> 
>>> Development platform - if you're a one-man band, you probably have a PC or Mac already. If you're doing something hardware specific - then yes, that will cost money. But hardware-specific DSP is a specialised semi-industrial niche, and not typical of general software development.
>>> 
>>> Developers - likewise, you won't count your time as a one-man band. But if you're hiring outsiders, good DSP or embedded coders are going to cost a lot more than £10/hr. So it depends...
>>> 
>>> The hidden costs if you're selling software are website design, transaction processing, and - for some projects - copy protection.
>>> 
>>> The obvious downsides are piracy and the fact that niche hardware can carry much higher margins.
>>> 
>>> The upside is the low spare-time development cost, the fact that you don't have to buy or manage stock or inventory (or pay anyone to do it for you - or manage a complete assembly solution), and the reassuring absence of shipping and customs charges. 
>>> 
>>> Basically making a living from hardware requires much more capital up front. But for the right projects it can pay better than niche software.
>>> 
>>> If you want to make a crap load of money, don't build synth hardware - build high-end hifi, spend money on making a design that looks esoteric and expensive, include some marketing nonsense about exotic components, and sell it for a ridiculous mark-up.
>>> 
>>> Richard
>>> 
>>>> On 12 Apr 2014, at 18:58, Paul Maddox <yo at vacoloco.net> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>>> On 11 April 2014 01:36, Neil Johnson <neil.johnson71 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> Even if, as I have done above, we assume that human time is free,
>>>>>> hardware development costs real money out of your pocket.  Software
>>>>>> development doesn't.
>>>>> It doesn't _now_.
>>>> sorry, I disagree with both of you.
>>>> Software development *does* cost money
>>>> lets look at the cost of a compiler, a good one can be £2000 per seat.
>>>> So say you have two developers, there's £4K.
>>>> Next you'll need a couple of development platforms, say £1K a piece.
>>>> Now it's going to take time for the software developers to get up to speed on your platform and the task at hand, good programmers say two weeks.
>>>> based on £10 an hour, two developers, 40 hours a week, there's another £1600.
>>>> 
>>>> Say the work takes 3 months, including integration and test, that's £9600.
>>>> 
>>>> so, cost of your software development - £17200.
>>>> 
>>>> remind me of how this is "zero cost" for software development.
>>>> 
>>>> Software isn't zero cost, but it has a much lower "direct" cost.
>>>> Where software does score is that to reproduce it requires almost zero cost.
>>>> 
>>>> Paul
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Synth-diy mailing list
>>>> Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>>>> http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Synth-diy mailing list
>>> Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>>> http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>> _______________________________________________
>> Synth-diy mailing list
>> Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>> http://dropmix.xs4all.nl/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
>