| Create Digital Noise Forum Index » DIY, Physical Computing, and Advanced Topics » best place to buy midi jacks? |
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| grapewizardusa |
 Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 2:26 pm |
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Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 12
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| hey dudes. anybody know the cheapest place to buy panel mount midi jacks? i have only found places that have minimum orders and things like that, and I only need a couple. I always feel ridiculous buying two .50 parts when shipping is like 8 bucks. |
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| dgostl |
| Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 6:40 am |
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Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 3
Location: new orleans
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| Dude, just go to Radio Shack. They have what you need, without any shipping, but you will pay around $2 each. You'll be dead and buried before you find a deal on 2 50 cent parts. Or you can just yank them from some old equipment. |
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Dave in N.O.
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| sodergren |
| Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 5:55 am |
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Joined: 27 Sep 2007
Posts: 3
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| my local radio shack doesn't carry midi jacks, and they told me that they couldn't even order them. I don't know if that's true, or if they are simply incompetent. I was able to find some at digi-key's website, but I don't know about their shipping or minimum order practices, as I haven't ordered any yet. |
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| bliss |
| Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 11:33 am |
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Joined: 03 Aug 2006
Posts: 695
Location: Here.
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Radioshack is not the DIY one-stop shop it used to be. Sadly. It now competes with Best Buy, Circuit City, and, of course, Wal-Mart. No one looks under the hood of their cars anymore, no one knows what the inside of a radio looks like anymore. Something breaks, repair it? Oh God, no! Just buy another one. Never mind building something for one's self. That's what the corporations teach these days. And people are listening. Most of them, anyway.
[/Rant off] |
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| dead_red_eyes |
| Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 1:57 pm |
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Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Posts: 560
Location: PDX, OR
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| It's pretty true tho Bliss. I was in there the other day to get some fuses and was like, wtf happened to Radioshack? This place looks like Wal-Mart. |
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| dgostl |
| Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:21 pm |
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Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 3
Location: new orleans
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just ask them for 5-pin DIN jacks
sodergren wrote: my local radio shack doesn't carry midi jacks, and they told me that they couldn't even order them. I don't know if that's true, or if they are simply incompetent. I was able to find some at digi-key's website, but I don't know about their shipping or minimum order practices, as I haven't ordered any yet. |
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Dave in N.O.
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| sodergren |
| Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 1:40 am |
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Joined: 27 Sep 2007
Posts: 3
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dgostl wrote: just ask them for 5-pin DIN jacks
sodergren wrote: my local radio shack doesn't carry midi jacks, and they told me that they couldn't even order them. I don't know if that's true, or if they are simply incompetent. I was able to find some at digi-key's website, but I don't know about their shipping or minimum order practices, as I haven't ordered any yet.
Yeah, I did that too. No luck. I also just hoped really hard and looked through every drawer in the place hoping to find one, but nothing.
It is possible that the guy didn't really get the connection, and looked only for midi jacks from his supplier. That would explain why he couldn't even order them. I have no trust in them, anymore, however. |
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| atomic_afro |
| Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 11:14 am |
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Joined: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 431
Location: Bellingham, WA (Home of Edirol USA!)
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Nah bliss, you give corporations too much credit. The truth is that the cost of electronics have dropped over time to the point where most people don't see any utility in repairing their electronic gear. It's not like some mustache twirling corporate boss is laughing manically about the demise of the local electronic repair shop. It's a simple process.
1. Through technological progress and competition the price of electronics drops.
2. As soon as the price of a new piece of electronic gear drops bellow the value of an existing piece (which becomes less over time) + the cost of having that piece repaired people stop consuming the repair needed to maintain existing electronics.
3. Local repair shops can no longer stay in business as the demand for that type of service disappears.
4. Radio shack drops most of their parts as that side of the business has too few customers to justify the space due to most repair shops going under and hobbyists no longer having a economically viable way to apply their trade.
It's not really anyone's blame... it's just the way things go in a modern economy. Corporations don't teach, people just act on what's in their best interest.
ATA |
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| bliss |
| Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 5:41 pm |
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Joined: 03 Aug 2006
Posts: 695
Location: Here.
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Afro, everything you say is correct, except that you leave out one crucial point. You leave out the point that I made. Competition reduces price, yes. However, products are bought by consumers on ideas and promises that what they are buying is better and more reliable than what has come before. One of the most marketed and advertised ideas is that new products will be more efficient and thus save the consumer more time and money, and thus add more value to the consumer's life. Rarely do advertisers and marketers market truth, especially in the US. Advertisers and marketers in the US make use of a corporation's right to free speech. That is, advertisers and marketers make use of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution which is a part of the Bill of Rights. The United States Constitution and Bill of Rights applies to individuals, i.e., natural persons aka human beings, and also juristic persons aka artificial persons, fictitious persons, or, for the sake of our conversation, corporations.
Economic factors such as competition and technological advance are not to be discounted. Neither should the ability of corporations to lie and deceive without consequence through the use of marketing and advertising. Neither should the capacity of human beings to believe untruths and untestable ideas that corporations use to get consumers to buy things. Consumers always buy on faith. There is no way for a consumer to really know how well a product will live up to the promises made by a corporation until the consumer buys a product and uses it. From the boardrooms of corporations and marketing and advertising agencies, to the salespersons on the retail floor, products are sold to consumers before they actually make a purchase.
Competition increases and prices decrease only after consumers make purchases. (Competition decreases through mergers and acquisitions as prices decrease only to see subsequent price increases in some instances, even with the advent of new advanced and implemented technologies. Such as with public utilities and broadband Internet services.)
Get an in depth understanding of "commercial speech", or, as some would say, "corporate right to lie" by delving into the Kasky v. Nike case. "In 2003 Marc Kasky sued Nike and accused them of lying in one of their public relations campaigns about not using sweatshop labor to produce sneakers. Nike did not dispute the facts of their ads, but instead argued that the corporation had a 1st Amendment right to free speech."
http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/nike/
http://www.firstuucolumbus.org/corppers/cp1.htm |
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| atomic_afro |
| Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 10:45 pm |
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Joined: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 431
Location: Bellingham, WA (Home of Edirol USA!)
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I'm certainly not disagreeing that companies (of any size, any form) should use good truth in advertising practices and that government should enforce consumer protection laws. However I do believe that overall the average consumer does get more value when it comes to electronics today than even let's say 5 years ago. True that the longevity of said products is much less than it used to be, however they're much less expensive to the point where even the poorest among us can afford the kind of gear that only the richest among us could afford only 30 years ago.
Now, there is something to be said for products that are built well by artisans... and there's a growing market for "boutique" electronics of various sorts (including our favorite guitar pedals!) That said, don't expect that everyone holds the same values of quality that you do. Most are content with something that is disposable, but makes up for it in much lower cost.
If people demanded products at a higher quality (and thusly at a higher cost), those that could supply such goods would naturally rise to the top over those that could not meet those standards. Nike grew to be as big as it is on the basis of supplying the quality footwear products that consumers demanded. It's true that they've been coasting on that good name for quite some time with (comparatively) lower quality goods at higher prices. None the less, the future Nikes... the ones that will overtake the incumbent in due course are going to do so by providing consumers with the level of quality goods they demand at the lowest price possible. Perhaps finding a new market not currently met by the existing firms (Vans for instance).
I don't buy Nikes, I don't shop at Walmart, and when I eat out I almost never eat at a fast food joint... but I'm not demanding that government step in, nor do I look morally down upon people who choose to purchase from them just because I don't share their taste in goods and services. Who am I to argue with another's rational consumer choice?
Bliss man, I don't mean to start a flame thread about this... I think it's a reasonable discussion to have. But let me give you a piece of advice. Read Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations", and think about some of the ideas it contains. There are others from David Ricardo to Friedrich Hayek that are worth reading as well, but Smith is a great place to start. I encourage everyone to read up on the basics of economic theory as it helps to raise the level of these sorts of discussions.
Sorry grapewizardusa for the thread hijack BTW.
ATA |
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| bliss |
| Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 11:41 pm |
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Joined: 03 Aug 2006
Posts: 695
Location: Here.
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Afro, I am up on Adam Smith. I studied business in college -- although with a focus on the music business. I got this from somewhere on the web over a year ago:
Economist Adam Smith in his book 'Wealth of Nations' argued that the invisible hand of the market would guide people to act in the public interest by following their own self-interest, since the only way to make money would be through voluntary exchange, and thus the only way to get the people's money was to give the people what they want. One does not get one's dinner by appealing to the brother-love of the butcher, the farmer or the baker. Rather one appeals to their self interest, and pays them for their labor.
There's more than a bit of wisdom in that statement. However, there also is more than a bit of implied caution. That if one only appeal to another's self-interest, one's self, i.e., the "brother-love", can be lost in the transaction. "Better to have a full stomach than a full heart." The idea that we can separate ethical and moral considerations from business is a foolish notion, in my opinion.
Anyway, don't worry, I argue. I don't flame. And I hate quarreling.  |
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| quantazelle |
| Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 4:12 pm |
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Joined: 03 Apr 2007
Posts: 24
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