A reply to a post:

"fat tiger: hey great blog. I'm a music lover in Sg too. J**** is really overpriced for some stuff. Wish i had more knowledge of electronics to DIY"

Firstly, thanks.

Onto topic, you don't need a lot of knowledge of electronics to DIY. And what I observe is that ironically, it tends to be the case that those who DIY don't have a lot of knowledge, and those who have a lot of knowledge don't DIY because they know that a good product requires months of research, calculations, simulation, measurements (and the required associated equipments), and at least a degree in electronics engineering plus a few years of actual hands-on experience. And so in the end, most don't bother, save for a few really pro ones that aim to achieve something that is better than what their money can buy (and usually having the above mentioned requirements).

And those that really have knowledge AND time, they're getting paid to design for companies, it couldn't count as DIY.

Those that DIY - most of them don't come up with their own designs, all they do is follow (free) instructions from someone else. Like, the Mini^3 amp for example, just follow the instructions and have some soldering skills. Or, some (possibly useless) things like swapping of op-amps, adding capacitors, which again, requires little real knowledge.

It's like, a car repair technician don't need to know how to design a car. Just learn how to hold the spanner.

Sad to say, I probably needn't mention that most DIY design jobs by novices tend to turn out sucky, even those that may be repackaged and sold at obscene prices to suckers.

Yup, so you don't have to really know electronics, just need to know enough to know that buying DIY-ed stuff from others is generally stupid unless they're charging you just the construction fee. Meaning a cable should cost at most as much as what you pay if you order one from LHS. And modded items are worth at most the item + the mod. I've seen too many J****ites trying to sell overpriced stuff either out of ignorance/self-delusion or actually trying to make money by tricking suckers. A certain few trying to act pro actually go around asking for receipes then make the product to sell to said suckers. They have no dignity. So it's best to avoid when you see one.