The Yamaha AN1x Synthesizer mailing list

All,

>Right.  Exactly what I'm saying.  CHEAPNESS.  TAWDRY.  EASY TO GET BY.

It's not that black and white...

Having been on the other side of the problem -- I've designed products for 
years -- I can understand the reason for the shift to wall 
warts.  Personally, I hate them, but it's a necessity brought on by the 
short product design cycles in modern consumer electronics.

If you make a line/mains-powered product, and plan to sell it in more than 
one country, the power supply is going to have to acquire a series of 
certifications from regulatory agencies.  For the most part, each country 
is reluctant to just "rubber stamp" their approval on top of another 
country -- sometimes because of differences in the power distribution and 
grounding schemes between countries; sometimes because different countries 
put a higher or lower merit on certain designs and design flaws; sometimes, 
just good old politics -- so samples of the products have to be submitted 
to each agency.

Afterwards, the samples have to be tracked and the results monitored, in 
case a problem arises.  (A sad truth:  If a locally-developed product has a 
certification problem, the agency will likely call the manufacturer to 
discuss the issues; if the product is from another country, it may just end 
up in a big "hold" pile until the manufacturer takes the first 
initiative.)  This requires a full-time compliance group within the 
company, who are aware of all the subtleties (and personalities) among the 
various agencies, and who have the bandwidth to keep tabs on the open 
certifications.  Or, it requires contracting with an outside agency to do 
the submittal and monitoring.  Most of these agencies get $1,000US/day or 
more for their services.

Either way, the process can take months; occasionally, a year or more, and 
the costs get passed on to the customer.  In the case of mass-produced 
products like CD players and PCs, the cost is small per unit sold, but 
musical instruments rarely sell at the same levels, so the cost adder could 
end up being significant -- maybe 5% of the total product cost.  And, it 
means that a product could be late to market, if it gets stuck in an agency 
queue for some reason.

OR, a wall wart design passes off all of the above unpleasantness to the 
power supply manufacturer.  In most cases, the power supply is already in 
production, so the delay between development and production is greatly 
reduced, often to a paper-only submittal.  Finally, power supply design and 
manufacture is a "mature" industry, where several companies may make 
suitable designs, allowing the musical equipment manufacturer to select 
product based solely on cost and availability.  Can you see why so many 
manufacturers have gone this route?

We all enjoy the fact that musical electronics today produce great 
sounding, flexible products at comparatively cheap prices.  (How many 
performing acts in the 60's and 70's could afford to carry around even ONE 
delay/reverb unit?  Most bands today have a dozen or more, counting the 
built-in effects in keyboards and guitar amps.)  There is the down side of 
the equation, however; it's call the wall wart.


Regards,

-BW

--
Bruce Wahler
Design Consultant
Ashby Solutions™
www.ashbysolutions.com
CloneWheel Support Group moderator
978.386.7389  voice
978.964.0547 fax
bruce@...