While we wait....
 

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

"Iain Churches" wrote in message
i...

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

Anybody considering a commercial venture of any kind needs to know that
(outside of intangibles like 'skill' and ingenuity) the costs of the
workforce, vehicles, plant & machinery, premises and raw materials
*will*
dictate unit cost price, but competition will dictate the ultimate
selling
price - thus any competitor that has a significant advantage in any of
those cost areas stands a greater chance of succeeding/surviving in a
marketplace where he has no monopoly...!!

And yet you expect people here in the West to to repair Chinese amps for
a bowl of rice:-))



No, I expect you to import foreigners and get them to do it for ****-all -
we've got an order in for a couple of million Rumanians, due any time
now...

Not much advantage their either. They still have to be paid at least the
minimum wage, and their employer still has to pay their social costs
which here in Scandinavia is about 140% of the salary.

Or, alternatively, quote long turn-round times and stack the work for 'Bob
A Job Week' and get some Scouts to do it for a new woggle or summat!

Now that's a smart idea:-) Don't tell Tim P!


Gawd Iain, you're not listening - *any* commercial enterprise needs a
steady cashlow unless it has massive reserves. Sitting around for 6 months
waiting for a wealthy idiot to wander in is *not* going to work!! Eating
is directly linked to your takings and overheads are there every damn
month whether you've had a result or not - you know that!!

Small scale valve amp manufacture is not dissimilar to
(wooden) boat building. You can have a small number
of fairly standard boats in stock, but usually the client
knows what he wants, and the craft is built to order.
The boat builder does not sell in large volume, but the
client is willing to pay for a quality product. Those who
are happy with something else buy a fibreglass boat.



Factor in also that a lot of the 'Eastern' competition in many areas
(call
centres, to name but one) receives serious Government assistance/subsidy
to run their businesses while here in Good Old Blighty you can only
depend
on being shafted at every opportunity and saddled with ruinous
legislation
heavily loaded in favour of the weakest link in your workforce,
irrespective of any company's capability to pay for the necessary
implementation!!

Wouldn't know about that, Sor.

:-))


I bloody do and so did just about every major manufacturing industry -
cars and boats and planes, to name but one famous line from a song....!!

It sounds as though legislation in the UK is working
against industry and enterprise.

Iain

While we wait....
 

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

Here's another - postage isn't too bad if you can wait for a small
eternity to get i:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HI-END-NEW-200...QQcmdZViewItem


Are they any good? No idea, I ain't ever heard one - this is where you
have to go by your own instincts and cross ya fingers!


Look at the name of that second one - it's the same as my Ming Da phono but
in a different box for 2007 - same valves too by the look of it. I wonder if
they have sorted out the AWOL bass?

Phil

While we wait....
 

"PhilN" wrote in message
...

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

Here's another - postage isn't too bad if you can wait for a small
eternity to get i:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HI-END-NEW-200...QQcmdZViewItem


Are they any good? No idea, I ain't ever heard one - this is where you
have to go by your own instincts and cross ya fingers!


Look at the name of that second one - it's the same as my Ming Da phono
but in a different box for 2007 - same valves too by the look of it. I
wonder if they have sorted out the AWOL bass?



Yes, I'd guess it's damn near identical inside. What we need is a circuit to
see if there are any differences to the Ming!

While we wait....
 

"Iain Churches" wrote

And yet you expect people here in the West to to repair Chinese amps for
a bowl of rice:-))



No, I expect you to import foreigners and get them to do it for
****-all - we've got an order in for a couple of million Rumanians, due
any time now...

Not much advantage their either. They still have to be paid at least the
minimum wage, and their employer still has to pay their social costs
which here in Scandinavia is about 140% of the salary.



No, these poor sods pretty soon 'owe their souls to the company store' - by
the time they have had their *deductions* taken out they barely have enough
money to get drunk on. Recently some poor Portugese bloke in East Anglia
topped himself when he was tossed out of the system (wouldn't play ball?)
and had no money or anywhere to live. The worst thing was *no-one* would pay
to have his body shipped home for a funeral - his own family were to poor to
do it. In true Brit style, the locals raised the money themselves!



Small scale valve amp manufacture is not dissimilar to
(wooden) boat building. You can have a small number
of fairly standard boats in stock, but usually the client
knows what he wants, and the craft is built to order.
The boat builder does not sell in large volume, but the
client is willing to pay for a quality product. Those who
are happy with something else buy a fibreglass boat.



Iain, a while back a friend of mine was UK Sales Manager for Britannia. In
12 years he never sold a single plane but was considered a success simply
because his competitors never sold one either!



It sounds as though legislation in the UK is working
against industry and enterprise.


I think you would be hard put to find anyone who says it isn't, although I
gather it's even worse in countries like France...??

While we wait....
 

Keith G wrote:




Iain, a while back a friend of mine was UK Sales Manager for Britannia. In
12 years he never sold a single plane but was considered a success simply
because his competitors never sold one either!



It sounds as though legislation in the UK is working
against industry and enterprise.


I think you would be hard put to find anyone who says it isn't, although I
gather it's even worse in countries like France...??


Before I retired I was MD of my UK employer's French subsidiary. French
employment law is not helpful to business: Firstly, Employers Social
Security contributions are around 70% of salary (less than Scandinavia,
but a whole lot more than the UK)

Secondly, firing an employee is almost impossible. Incompetence is no
excuse, and once hired, you're pretty much stuck with them. If you try
and move them into something else where they'll do less harm and just
stand the ongoing cost, they take you to an industrial tribunal which
will require you to reinstate them. The only way is to pay them to quit,
which is legal, but costs typically 2-3 years salary (plus SS
contributions and holiday pay for holidays not taken during the
two-three years you're paying them for).

If you try and avoid hiring someone permanent, you can take somebody on
as a temp, but you're only allowed to keep them as temporary for a
maximum of 18 months. After that, you have to let them leave and not
rehire them for at least 12 months, or give them a permanent contract
with all the risks you then won't be able to get rid of them later.

Redundancy is possible, but again costs at least 12 months salary plus
plus plus.

If you want to recruit, it's also pretty difficult as French
unemployment law provides for Unemployment Benefit to be 80% of their
previous salary for 6 months, then 50% for another 18 months.
Consequently, anyone out of work often wants to stay out of work at
least for six months, effectively having a nice long paid holiday, and
often 2 years if their income needs are modest.

Glad I'm not young any more.........

S.

While we wait....
 

"Serge Auckland" wrote in message
...
Keith G wrote:




Iain, a while back a friend of mine was UK Sales Manager for Britannia.
In 12 years he never sold a single plane but was considered a success
simply because his competitors never sold one either!



It sounds as though legislation in the UK is working
against industry and enterprise.


I think you would be hard put to find anyone who says it isn't, although
I gather it's even worse in countries like France...??

Before I retired I was MD of my UK employer's French subsidiary. French
employment law is not helpful to business: Firstly, Employers Social
Security contributions are around 70% of salary (less than Scandinavia,
but a whole lot more than the UK)

Secondly, firing an employee is almost impossible. Incompetence is no
excuse, and once hired, you're pretty much stuck with them. If you try and
move them into something else where they'll do less harm and just stand
the ongoing cost, they take you to an industrial tribunal which will
require you to reinstate them. The only way is to pay them to quit, which
is legal, but costs typically 2-3 years salary (plus SS contributions and
holiday pay for holidays not taken during the two-three years you're
paying them for).

If you try and avoid hiring someone permanent, you can take somebody on as
a temp, but you're only allowed to keep them as temporary for a maximum of
18 months. After that, you have to let them leave and not rehire them for
at least 12 months, or give them a permanent contract with all the risks
you then won't be able to get rid of them later.

Redundancy is possible, but again costs at least 12 months salary plus
plus plus.

If you want to recruit, it's also pretty difficult as French unemployment
law provides for Unemployment Benefit to be 80% of their previous salary
for 6 months, then 50% for another 18 months. Consequently, anyone out of
work often wants to stay out of work at least for six months, effectively
having a nice long paid holiday, and often 2 years if their income needs
are modest.

Glad I'm not young any more.........



Jeez, no wonder French firms are keen to relocate over here! What a bloody
nightmare!

But it's very interesting in that (having never had cause to fire *anyone*
in over 500 combined years of employment) it is in keeping with my own view
that there is a massive responsibility on the part of the employer not to
hire the wrong people for the job, or allow them to fail in the job once
they have been taken on....??

Back to 'audio' - Swim's got the bloody telly on (as usual) and has drawn my
attention just now to an auction where sombody's just bought a 'Peter Pan'
portable gramophone for 85 quid! (Batteries not included....)

See one on he

http://www.pbase.com/kdnatives/jamis...eum_musicboxes


And I have just won this on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...5627&rd=1&rd=1


Lovely, innit? I just hope it gets here in good shape!

I wonder how hard it would be to fit it to this (which I won yesterday for
the price of a T&G headshell):

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...6830&rd=1&rd=1


with one of my M75s with a 78 needle in it and get a squeak out of it?

Daft but fun!

(Streuth, but I just *love* records and record players - every damn one of
them!! :-)

While we wait....
 

Keith G wrote:


But it's very interesting in that (having never had cause to fire *anyone*
in over 500 combined years of employment) it is in keeping with my own view
that there is a massive responsibility on the part of the employer not to
hire the wrong people for the job, or allow them to fail in the job once
they have been taken on....??

In France you have every incentive to make sure that happens.



And I have just won this on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...5627&rd=1&rd=1


Lovely, innit? I just hope it gets here in good shape!

I wonder how hard it would be to fit it to this (which I won yesterday for
the price of a T&G headshell):

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...6830&rd=1&rd=1


with one of my M75s with a 78 needle in it and get a squeak out of it?

Daft but fun!

(Streuth, but I just *love* records and record players - every damn one of
them!! :-)


As you say, daft but fun. I think there's a very good chance of making
it work properly. Yesterday I got out of my loft a 1920s acoustic
gramophone I had there for the past 20 years with the intention of
getting it working again. Mechanism works fine, it's the cabinet that
needs attention. I have three boxes of needles and all I need now are a
few 78s.

I love the volume control on it, a pair of doors over the end of the
horn, open them and it gets louder.....

S.

While we wait....
 

"Serge Auckland" wrote


As you say, daft but fun. I think there's a very good chance of making it
work properly. Yesterday I got out of my loft a 1920s acoustic gramophone
I had there for the past 20 years with the intention of getting it working
again. Mechanism works fine, it's the cabinet that needs attention. I have
three boxes of needles and all I need now are a few 78s.


Tough to find - there are only 613 auctions for 78s on eBay atm - starting
at 35p + postage!!

(Some Coleman Hawkins and a ****load of Duke Ellington on just the first
page!! Or how about a nice Rudy Vallee:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/UK-78-record-R...QQcmdZViewItem

;-)



I love the volume control on it, a pair of doors over the end of the horn,
open them and it gets louder.....


:-)

I trust there'll be some pix and a *recording* wouldn't go amiss (I've been
training this lot for a while now - they all know to make allowances for the
*room*) - send 'em to me if you don't have a website and I'll put them up
for you!!

While we wait....
 

Keith G wrote:
"Rob" wrote in message
...
Keith G wrote:
"Rob" wrote


I've got an 834P phono, paid about 200UKP S/H, and I like it a lot. Only
criticisms are a slight bass 'lift' and a daft difficult-to-see on/off
arrangement - I left it on for a week once ;-).

Chicken head knobs will help you avoid this - I swapped them onto both my
EAR bits (and back off again when I sold them), but global-waming ussues
aside, the EAR is designed to be left on 24/7 with no ill effect, I
gather....

Yep, must do the knob change (as it were).



Let me know if you need one and I'll put one in a Jiffy bag, I've got a
bunch of them - as per:

http://www.apah69.dsl.pipex.com/show/ear834p.JPG


That'd be great Keith, thanks.


snip

I did try to order one when WAD were alive - by phone and the web. On the
phone he promised to get back to me (never did), on the web the order page
kept returning errors. The new WD stuff looks good - but no phono.


OK, I thought one was on the horizon....??


Seems so (Nick's post below).


If anyone knows of a tried/tested valve MC/MM kit that comes with all the
bits (including a PCB - don't fancy that point-to-point stuff) please tell
...


There's always the Chinky stuff on eBay...??

This one's cheap atm, but the postage ain't too tiny:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MS-12B-MM-MC-C...QQcmdZViewItem


Here's another - postage isn't too bad if you can wait for a small eternity
to get i:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HI-END-NEW-200...QQcmdZViewItem


Are they any good? No idea, I ain't ever heard one - this is where you have
to go by your own instincts and cross ya fingers!


Could be worth a twirl for 100UKPish, nothing (much) ventured ...

Talking of eBay, I'd better get off - I'm winning no less than 6 items atm,
I'd better get on watch!! :-)


Pile 'em high :-)

Rob

While we wait....
 

Nick Gorham wrote:
Rob wrote:


I did try to order one when WAD were alive - by phone and the web. On
the phone he promised to get back to me (never did), on the web the
order page kept returning errors. The new WD stuff looks good - but no
phono.

If anyone knows of a tried/tested valve MC/MM kit that comes with all
the bits (including a PCB - don't fancy that point-to-point stuff)
please tell ...

Rob

The WD one will be ready very soon now, the power supply and pre have
been in the mag, the phono will be next. Give them a call and ask.
Having met Peter a couple of times now its clear he has a different view
on how to make the company a success than the last owners (not that its
the same company in fact).

It (and its power supply) are PCB based.


Thanks Nick, will do.

Rob