OP
- Joined
- May 28, 2020
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- #1,561
Well, I can finally show what I have been working on (with A LOT of help from a kick ass forum member).
As most of you know, I am the sole owner and builder. I am also near the end of a PhD. So when word of mouth (because all of you in this community of awesome) and popularity spread last summer, the orders started building and building. For the most part it was acceptable as the audio community is very understandable for "custom" type products (like a Funk Audio subwoofer). And global shortages also helped with the long wait times (some people received their amps from me before speakers or processors). And I have always tried to be upfront on wait times and what I can handle on my own.
But, I also have not wanted to hire anyone. Not so much out of greed, but because I would rather be hands on for every single build and customer service. So the issue arose: how do I grow if I can't accept more orders and build them faster at the same level of quality?
Behold, my answer: a custom LED board and Input board. The input board has the XLR and 12v built-in, along with a slide switch to allow easy toggle between always on, 12v enabled, or Auto Sense (Auto On). The LED board up front connects to the input board and will change color if clipping occurs. Custom made, ready to use/pre-terminated cables will also be produced.
The benefit: a typical 2ch build right now takes about 1.5hrs as I have to terminate all cables, heat shrink, mount XLR's and Binding posts, etc etc.
With the new boards I anticipate assembly taking MAX 30 minutes (pretty much the same as a Ghent Audio kit build). The huge advantage will come with the 6/8ch builds. Those normally take me 6-8hrs. I anticipate getting that down to 2hrs max.
The goal is to expand from about 5 orders a week to minimum of 10 while I finish my PhD and then up to 15 a week come end of summer. I hope to even get to a point where the 2ch Hypex (and eventually Purifi) amps would have a max turn around time of 1 week (larger channel counts may still have a longer wait time, but hopefully 4 weeks max compared to the current 16 weeks).
The only downside is prices might go up *slightly*. Waiting to get the cost of the finished boards when ordering large quantity. And at most I would expect maybe a 5% increase.
Now, for past and current (pending) Buckeye owners: quality will be the same. This change will not make my newest offerings "better". The two major additions is the Auto Sense and built-in clipping LED.
There is no hard timeline on the implementation of this change, so all orders will continue to be completed with normal build approach and timeline. If someone with a pending order wants to wait for this option, I can work that out with them (though most likely some of the further out orders will be fulfilled with the changes due to timeline anyways).
As most of you know, I am the sole owner and builder. I am also near the end of a PhD. So when word of mouth (because all of you in this community of awesome) and popularity spread last summer, the orders started building and building. For the most part it was acceptable as the audio community is very understandable for "custom" type products (like a Funk Audio subwoofer). And global shortages also helped with the long wait times (some people received their amps from me before speakers or processors). And I have always tried to be upfront on wait times and what I can handle on my own.
But, I also have not wanted to hire anyone. Not so much out of greed, but because I would rather be hands on for every single build and customer service. So the issue arose: how do I grow if I can't accept more orders and build them faster at the same level of quality?
Behold, my answer: a custom LED board and Input board. The input board has the XLR and 12v built-in, along with a slide switch to allow easy toggle between always on, 12v enabled, or Auto Sense (Auto On). The LED board up front connects to the input board and will change color if clipping occurs. Custom made, ready to use/pre-terminated cables will also be produced.
The benefit: a typical 2ch build right now takes about 1.5hrs as I have to terminate all cables, heat shrink, mount XLR's and Binding posts, etc etc.
With the new boards I anticipate assembly taking MAX 30 minutes (pretty much the same as a Ghent Audio kit build). The huge advantage will come with the 6/8ch builds. Those normally take me 6-8hrs. I anticipate getting that down to 2hrs max.
The goal is to expand from about 5 orders a week to minimum of 10 while I finish my PhD and then up to 15 a week come end of summer. I hope to even get to a point where the 2ch Hypex (and eventually Purifi) amps would have a max turn around time of 1 week (larger channel counts may still have a longer wait time, but hopefully 4 weeks max compared to the current 16 weeks).
The only downside is prices might go up *slightly*. Waiting to get the cost of the finished boards when ordering large quantity. And at most I would expect maybe a 5% increase.
Now, for past and current (pending) Buckeye owners: quality will be the same. This change will not make my newest offerings "better". The two major additions is the Auto Sense and built-in clipping LED.
There is no hard timeline on the implementation of this change, so all orders will continue to be completed with normal build approach and timeline. If someone with a pending order wants to wait for this option, I can work that out with them (though most likely some of the further out orders will be fulfilled with the changes due to timeline anyways).
