dcr@cs.brown.edu (Daniel C. Robbins) (06/06/90)
Do poeple think there is a market for the following: A company which makes ultra high end equipment with cases/interfaces manufactured to the clients specifications. I am not talking about just putting components inside of fancy furniture. I see several two scenarios for this: 1) The client chooses off the shelf components and the design company repackages the components in custom cabinets. 2) The design company manufactures the entire component from board to box The advantages for the client are: 1) you get components which look the way you want with the sound you want. Have you ever wished one component you bought (for its better sound) looked like another component? 2) you get an interface to your own specs. This means that you could have an order sheet where you decide if the volume control should be a slider, knob, two pushbuttons, rocker, etc... Maybe the client prefers LED's to LCD's or florescent. The client could choose between traditional VU meters and segmented. At first reading this may all sound contradictory to the pursuit of sound for itself. But I feel that if the client is paying such a large sum for the components, they should be able to have them look they way they want as well. A question of caution: does anyone know how the rearanging of knobs or whole subassemblies in a component affects sound, i.e. R.F. interference, crosstalk... ...is the best solution to have the entire component fiber optic? Just for the record, my background is in industrial design and computer graphics, not technical audio. -- - - - - - - - - - - Dan C. Robbins | "Graphics people [try to] do it in real time." dcr@cs.brown.edu | uunet!brunix!dcr dcr@browncs.bitnet Box 245 Brown U Prov RI 02912
sg1q+@andrew.cmu.edu (Simon Peter Gatrall) (06/07/90)
>discussion about designing new interfaces to high quality components
I'm an industrial designer, so I tend to think about these issues a lot.
"Ultra high end" would be the only people who could afford the service.
Even just repackaging the existing components and controlls in a really
neat looking shape could cost >$1000 per component. This may sound like
a ridiculous price, but professional model makers who mock up prototypes
of products get that kind of money all the time. If you want to replace
the controls or do any electronic redesign, you're talking about a
horrendous amount of money.
I don't think you're crazy for wanting better looking components, but I
think that depending on the level of redesign and the amount of
difference from customer to customer this kind of service could get into
a lot of money. I have offen thought of repackaging components that I
own, but none of them are good enough audio wise to me worth the effort.
If you have something specific in mind, send me some mail, and I could
give yu an idea of how difficult it might be.
-Simon Gatrall sg1q+@andrew.cmu.edu