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Price for DIY hifi

philiphifi

pfm Member
hi - is there a market for DIY hifi? i built two Kondo M7 preamps with expensive chassis and parts and i want to sell one but i suspect that no one will buy it. it was checked over by a proper electrician with full report but there is no CE stamp obviously. Is it even legal to sell it?
 
DIY hifi has no track record and seems to attract VERY little attention and money.

I have been involved with CE marking fiascos in the past and they actually mean very little of any real worth. That said, a good friend who is an electronics engineer has assured me in the past that sticking a CE sticker on anything (they are or were available by the roll from RS) is entirely allowable under the rules. Basically, a CE mark states that the kit, whatever it is, conforms to a list of standards that you yourself declare.
 
I think it's well understood within the diy community that you are buying from one diy enthusiast to another, and there is no implied certification or warranty. There's a diy classifieds room here, on diyaudio, and other forums. As long as it is clearly sold as being diy it's fine I would have thought.
 
I've built stuff for ( personal use ) and sold it on when I fancied a change , so there is a market out there . However compared to your initial outlay you will get very little back , maybe half of what the parts cost .
 
Hence why many people are wise to sell on a 'not working, parts only' basis. The risk otherwise is palpable.
 
but legally if the buyer gets electrocuted then who's liable?
The buyer, unless the seller has built an obvious death trap. Same applies to cars etc, as a private seller your experience is expected to be minimal. If the brakes are obviously not working then this is apparent, and you would reasonably be expected to tell the buyer, otherwise it's his problem if a fault appears.
 
I suspect that the only way that you'd get away with that would be if you denied that you built it. Joe Public does not build cars.
 
I build some stuff to sell, notably the Paradise phonostage. It's not ce marked, though its built to all the relevant specs. If you have a reputation for building quality sounding product you can fetch a decent price. That said while I'm not giving them away theyd be at least twice the price if retailed, probably 2.5x.
 
hi - is there a market for DIY hifi? i built two Kondo M7 preamps with expensive chassis and parts and i want to sell one but i suspect that no one will buy it.
As a rule of thumb I would agree with the poster above. DIY kit tends to follow the price of the parts which if second hand and in good condition might be 50% of the parts price. However, the people likely to be interested are other DIYers and so the number of potential buyers is almost certainly going to be pretty small.
 
Most definitely not an off shelf psu in the paradise. Theres 400 worth of parts in just the psu excluding casework. But unlike selling kit you've built they are built bespoke to order, it's a different game, I guess.

I'd have no qualms buying DIY from a third party though in all likelihood I'd just build whatever myself.

Most small brands start of building for themselves, then for like minded punters, then maybe they become a brand, if that's the intent. For me, building the Paradise is more like giving someone a gift. I'll only build you one if I like you. It's not a money making enterprise.
 
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The enjoyment derived from building your own kit (and pride of ownership) is the point of the exercise, perhaps to a lesser extent affordability of an otherwise expensive amp/preamp/dac/speaker. So the potential buyer is more likely to be an impoverished bargain hunter than a fellow diy-er. I'd expect a well established and reviewed design (with photos showing immaculate build quality) to sell eventually, but probably for much less than the BOM cost. So I'm probably stuck with my five (!) pre-amps.

(I quite fancy an Elekit TU8600RVK - but £2000+ is a lot for a boat anchor, even if it does 'sound like a £20,000 amplifier'. Anyone on here built or heard one? ;))
 


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