Chris,
The majority of effort to build an AKSA is in the metalwork. This is not to say the pcb assembly is easy; it's not, and it does require great care, with soldering experience almost mandatory. But the layout and metalwork is problematic, if only because most people don't have the necessary array of tools to do the job. Just drilling a hole in mild steel can easily hold up a project, and for fastening purposes you just have to drill holes......
OTOH, and many have suggested this, the problems of building the whole amplifier in Australia and shipping it abroad are substantial. First, I'd have to do the lot, and I've already built enough amplifiers go to whoa to last a lifetime. Design is my principle obsession; not building. Second, I'm not wonderful at metalwork; it's difficult even with my reasonably well fitted workshop, and it's very time consuming. I should know; I've got four amps in my workshop right now in various stages of assembly. Add to that the fact that metal work is very poorly paid, dirty and demanding, and you have a conundrum. Further, this stuff is bulky and heavy, and shipping it in smallish numbers is even more costly than producing and painting it.
So, you need to either have the confidence to do it yourself, along with some specialty tools, or access to a good, inexpensive metal work shop. For my local market, and even a few customers overseas, I have produced some nice metalwork (viz the Audition amp, which is very strongly built, and Josh seems to like a lot) but the casework is around $US160 with shipping almost the same to the US, so that's a mighty expensive piece of metal!! The advantage, however, is that it is specifically designed for the AKSA with holes and folds in just the right places.
Obviously, the best way to set this up is to have someone in the US do all the metal work for me. However, minimum order would be 100 cases. Would they sell? It's hard to know, and a big risk. And where would I store them, and how would they be packaged for despatch? All this presupposes an agent in the US, and that's tricky too, because prices would have to rise to ensure everyone has a slice of the pie.
So, we are between a rock and a hard place. What to do? Perhaps the answer is to produce the AKSA in a cheap labor country, and export directly to the US/Europe, selling via the usual bricks and mortar establishments. This would raise prices to at least $US3K for a 100W AKSA, and thus put it in direct competition at ranking prices with the 7,356 good SS amplifiers presently in the marketplace, all competing for your dollar.
If anyone has any worthy ideas on this and other weighty issues, do please PM me. I'm ready to listen.........
Cheers,
Hugh
