Build your own receiver?

[AndrewLyles]

SO I'm not thinking about doing this, or really even desire to do so, juust thinking out loud.

I bought the computer I'm using right now from Dell (I'm not proud of that either, so let's move on okay?) but could have easily gotten all of the same parts and achieved almost the same product, if I so desired. Why can't we do the same thing with pre/pros, amps, and receivers? A lot of the products on the market already use similiar (or the same) parts, processors, boards, and cabling. Ofther than lack of availability is there a major aspect that I'm over looking that would prevent someone from piecing together their own equipement?

Before you say something, yes I realize I'm over simplifing things here, but I'm just thinnking aloud.

 

[skizzerflake]

SO I'm not thinking about doing this, or really even desire to do so, juust thinking out loud.

I bought the computer I'm using right now from Dell (I'm not proud of that either, so let's move on okay?) but could have easily gotten all of the same parts and achieved almost the same product, if I so desired. Why can't we do the same thing with pre/pros, amps, and receivers? A lot of the products on the market already use similiar (or the same) parts, processors, boards, and cabling. Ofther than lack of availability is there a major aspect that I'm over looking that would prevent someone from piecing together their own equipement?

Before you say something, yes I realize I'm over simplifing things here, but I'm just thinnking aloud.

Since the first IBM PC, PC's they have much in their architecture that is industry standard, otherwise you couldn't plug in various gadgets like flash drives and usb devices and use things like hard disks and video cards on a variety of PCs. Receivers have inputs and outputs, but everything between them can be proprietary since nobody actually does build their own receiver and most people have never even looked inside. It would be cool for the tinkerer to be able to buy and plug in a different DSP mode or add some more 5 channel inputs or whatever.

 

[Nuglets]

Keep in mind though...most receiver's have their chips soldered on to the circuit board and most of them are quite different inside. It is just a computer so to speak but I would compare it to building the motherboard of the PC vs. assembling(plugging in) all the parts of a PC onto the M/B.

 

[markw]

Perhaps if they ever develop a standard GIU, then you might have a chance.

Who knows? Maybe this will be Microsoft's next venture?

 

[Tyreman]

As far as receivers or home theatre electronics period...You can do whatever you want with your time and money it is yours
you can't for one buy in quantity vs price ratio for one thing(economies of scale)
also keep in mind you need several thousand dollars of test equipment as well
So economically it wouldn't pay to do it.
Its akin to speakers you can build all you want no problem but to achieve repetitive test results without some decent test equipent won't get you far other than the personal satisfaction of I built it.
You can buy better cheaper period.

 

[AndrewLyles]

First off, as this is taking a much more DIY turn I apologize that it is in this thread, at the start it seemed applicable to the general topic. My apologies.

As far as receivers or home theatre electronics period...You can do whatever you want with your time and money it is yours
you can't for one buy in quantity vs price ratio for one thing(economies of scale) also keep in mind you need several thousand dollars of test equipment as well So economically it wouldn't pay to do it. Its akin to speakers you can build all you want no problem but to achieve repetitive test results without some decent test equipent won't get you far other than the personal satisfaction of I built it. You can buy better cheaper period.

I'm not saying I have the skills or desire to undertake such a project, it just seems that you would think you could. My reference is amature radio for instance. If you look at that hobby/industry there are a good number of manufacturers who make incredible equipment, though there are still a lot of enthusiasts who either heavily modify their equipment, or in extreme cases build their own. I recognize I'm new to this, at least in the sense of being able to participate in some of the more costly aspects of it, but I haven't really read a whole lot about equipment modification or custom builds.

As for the comment of building your own speakers I think, again this is speculation, that there are a good number of members where that build there own speakers from plans or personal creation. If you look at the mobile audio industry much of what is created there is all custom work. When I used to be involved in Car audio that was half of the fun of it, building your own enclosures, trying out new techniques. Again you were using someone elses components, and I never knew anyone who custom built a head unit or amplifier.

I would be curious to know if anyone out there has tried to construct there own components before and what type of sucess they have had. It seems like a whole new dimension to the hobby that I personally haven't considered.

 

[AndrewLyles]

Keep in mind though...most receiver's have their chips soldered on to the circuit board and most of them are quite different inside. It is just a computer so to speak but I would compare it to building the motherboard of the PC vs. assembling(plugging in) all the parts of a PC onto the M/B.

That's actually a very interesting arguement. So then the question becomes, if you could simply switch out the parts inside your components would it make a difference, or would there be no feesible way to have the firmware recognize the new parts and it would simply fail altogether?

 

[Nuglets]

That's actually a very interesting arguement. So then the question becomes, if you could simply switch out the parts inside your components would it make a difference, or would there be no feesible way to have the firmware recognize the new parts and it would simply fail altogether?

I bet there's a way. I'm sure it would involve some knowledge above my head in that field and a real passion for project's like that.