[sdiy] Secrets [Was: Discrete OTA]

[Tom Wiltshire]

Absolutely! You can cover the $35K cost of licenses and certifications with the sale of your first unipolarized single-element quark-aligned gold-plated titanium power cable. No sweat! The real money rolls in when someone buys a full system!

T.

On 14 Apr 2014, at 02:07, Richard Wentk <richard at wentk.com> wrote:

> 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
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
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