Audio Crafters Guild Vision Statement
Given access to the necessary parts and excellent circuit designs
home crafts persons can build audio equipment fully the equal
of any commercially produced component. Audio Crafters Guild exists
to supply these parts and circuit designs.
A vision this ambitious (in some quarters even heretical) can
only be brought to reality by focusing our energies, sticking
to a mature world view, and observing certain boundary conditions.
- Trusting our own ears. Recognize there is life beyond the
"Recommended Components" listings. Your custom design
will likely never be reviewed and it could be a long time, if
ever, before any Audio Crafters Guild kit is reviewed.
Many audiophiles are doomed to audio purgatory forever chasing
that always moving target of the latest reviewer certified High
End establishment components. Others of us have direct personal
experience with both the reviewer certified super component being
found wanting and with craftsman built or regional products possessing
unheralded world class performance.
- Work with a craftsman's attitude. The final quality of a piece
is the sum of its parts and builder's care. Trust your personal
skills, abilities, and capacity for growth. Whether you are taking
that first tentative step of opening up a mid-fi CD player considering
mods to unlock its potential for excellence or considering yet
another scratch design know the human potential is unlimited and
you can do it. Yes there are risks, some things will have to be
redone in the pursuit of excellence or broken then fixed on the
way to improvement. Keep in mind the tremendous rewards: knowledge
gained, personal satisfaction, and closer contact with your music.
- Share and share alike. This enterprise resulted from our experiences
sharing designs and ideas with others and their sharing with us.
We know there are not enough hours in the day to build all the
projects or implement all the refinements that can be dreamed
up. Thus it has been with great joy we have witnessed people Norman
helped get started take a circuit and refine it to extreme lengths
while he moved on to the latest interesting new chip set. We really
look forward to hearing the details of your project, if you wish
to share them. This is why the term Guild is in our name,
dreaming of an exchange of ideas, tools, and techniques among
a select few craftspersons in the tradition of a middle ages crafts
guild.
welcome to the guild
Norman & Marian Tracy