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I feel for you

I've always been extremely satisfied that I took the technical route in my career. I studied physics at the University of Chicago, Nuclear Engineering at the University of Illinois, worked as a technican at a national lab while in college, and I'm not afraid to work on anything.  I do all my work on my cars because that's the best way to know it is done right.  

And here's the point, I do just about all my own work on my audio equipment.  I'm not afraid to take a $20,000 DAC apart and modify it.  I've done mods for myself and other people.  I build most of my own cables.  I add bypass switches and extra sets of inputs. And I am very happy with the results.  

But I know there are many members here who feel totally incapable of such things.  They have never been technical. their educational background is non-technical.  They even tried to avoid math and science classes in high school and college. They assume they will never have any technical ability.  I emphasize that is their assessment of their own skills, not mine.

So I'm reading Alex Karp's new book (I highly recommend it) and he points out that in the past leaders tended to be scientists or lovers of science instead of lawyers and political science students.  Ben Franklin was a scientist first and a politician second.  Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, said if first love was science and politics was his duty.  As for myself, UofChicago taught me to write as well as do physics which has been very handy in my career and personal life.

So I say not only is it possible to have both scientific and literary skills, but it is natural.  I think we've fooled ourselves into thinking we have to choose one or the other.  and if you have chosen the non-technical route, there is nothing that says you can't be both.

So read up on your tube amp.  Learn what the B+ voltage is.  Get a technical friend to help you build some cables.   I have my daughter, currently an honors student in business school, soldering when she is home on break.  

The internet makes all of this easy to research.

Don't be afraid to change out the connectors on the back of your amp to an upgraded model.  it isn't hard to replace a capacitor with either a new in-kind or an upgraded capacitor.  

Finally, technical people love to help others.  Find someone around you who will help you and have some fun.  your system will benefit from it.

I'll freely admit there are people here with much more experience with technical things that I have.  I have to go get help sometimes.  That's one of the great things about the internet and forums like this.

Jerry

carlsbad2

Showing 1 response by wsrrsw

wsrrsw's avatar
wsrrsw
1,120 posts
 

Great and well considered post by you under-the-hood technology wiz kids. Thanks. I don’t have the aptitude as you folks do to make or modify many things (except simple wiring) and the last auto work I did was rebuilding a carborator fifty (gulp) years or so ago. Crazy glue is my go to.

(I worked as an adverting photographer and early on did some work for Polaroid having to take apart a SX70 camera and used a very large and heavy screw driver to discharge the petite capacitor. The discharge took a real bite out of the metal! Lesson learned.  Anther time I was on a shoot in a large grocery store and a kid spilled a bucket of fish blood on a 2000W power pack and the eight capacitors blew up sounding like a gun getting fired. People screamed and briefly mayhem ensued.)

However not all of us hanging around sharing and gleaning audio asks and advice have an innate aptitude for circuits, soldering and schematic diagrams or points timing (Ok, I could do that). Recall it’s called the arts and sciences. It could be just one and not necessarily both. Did James Oscar Smith know how to make or modify a Hammond B-3 organ? Could Stevie Ray Vaughan modify or build a guitar pickup?

There are many forms of a Renaissance man/person and more importantly being a good person. I feel for you too. Judge not lest ye be judged for I know not what I do. But I do know something you don’t and vise versa.  If I could remember where I put my reading glasses all would the well.

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