You Wouldn’t Believe Whom I Met!
About 10 years ago, I began my first foray into DIY audio. I built a Darling amp. There’s quite a lot of articles on Darling amps on the net, just do a search.
Even though I’m trained in electronics, I was totally fresh out of school and damn wet behind the ears. Yes, the schematic looked simple enough but at 250VDC, this isn’t the time and place to “experiment”, so I thought.
And building my first amp, I had so much to worry. Guess what? I found this guy, possibly the first guy to build a Darling amp in Malaysia, willing to help me build my Darling amp. But only from a distance as he stayed hundreds of miles away from where I was.
What followed was a long exchange of emails, asking all sorts of questions, to clear any lingering doubt and gain more confidence before tackling the project. Like I said, at 250VDC, my apprehension should be understandable.
Now, Shamsul is not only a very patient guy, answering all the emails, he’s enthusiasm just “pops” out of the emails he writes. You must be a piece of dead wood if you don’t get infected by his enthusiasm.
Couple weeks later (I’m slow you see), finally got it built and voila! It works!
I was so excited I even built a page for it (and it’s still there today!)
You could see, I was so lazy I didn’t even got the wooden base built for it. Just a top plate, supported by rubber door stops and playing music! Ahh… those carefree days…
Anyway, my friendship with Shamsul didn’t stop there and we continued to exchange emails on many topics, even outside audio.
Then suddenly for some reasons, all communication stopped. Shamsul sort of went “missing in action”. He was sooooo quiet that, forget about the Darling amp, even a 0.00001W amp is louder!
Many years later, I was surprised to get some comments on my blog. From the initials and the wordings, I guessed it’s him. And it’s him! Shamsul’s back!
And what a coincidence! He has been working at an office just 2 miles from where I work! For the last 5 years!
So yesterday, finally met him face to face for the FIRST time. The guy who set me right on the path to DIY audio. My humble thanks to you for guiding me right on this journey.
Now Shamsul, it’s MY turn to corrupt you! Will get you to my place some day and corrupt you with big fat evil horns!!!
24 April 2009 | diyparadise | Comments
One Response to “You Wouldn’t Believe Whom I Met!”
1 SAMBK 24 April 2009 @ 10:31 am
Greets,
Cooooooool, some ramblings of little old me, hahahahaha. Thanks, it was great to finally meet up face to face after all these years for the FIRST time.
A very big sorry to all whom i knew back then, I just had to distance myself and lying damn low and total silence.
During those silence years, from a distance and silence, I do often check-up on the happenings of those I knew from the internet.
Yup, its me alrite. Those were the fun hey days of mine venturing the DIY hobby and passion path, many endless sleepless nites exchanging emails, surfing the internet, biddings on Ebay, countless visits to the postoffice, getting high with solder fumes and lastly but not ….. enjoying music.
Am slowly going back into this hobby and passion, thus the breaking of silence.
Nope, am not gonna be corrupted by them big evil horns regardless am feeling a bit “horny” now, kahkahkah.
Till later then.
Keep Up The Good Works.
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