Posted by Bill Fitzmaurice [ 64.12.116.135 ] on April 03, 2004 at 09:28:27:
In Reply to: Re: For Beginners posted by wunhuanglo on April 02, 2004 at 19:32:27:
I agree that the net has an influence on things, but one unfortunate aspect of the net is that anyone can put in their two cents, including those who probably shouldn't. There's an advantage to print in that to get there you generally have to pass muster with an editor. A point in fact to illustrate this is the forums at that other site, most especially in the cables and tweaks sections, where it's not uncommon to see threads that resemble a drill team consisting of Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Jose Feliciano, if you get my drift. I'm not sure of the value of a forum where as much if not more disinformation than information is disemminated.
It is true that DIY is on the decline. Witness the removal of Rat Shack from the genre. Sure, Parts Express and MCM are booming thanks to the net and mail-order, but the local sources for DIY have dried up. A good deal of that has to do with the maturity of T/S theory; in the 80's Speaker Builder printed project after project using the relatively new T/S parameters. Now the attitude there is 'been there,done that, how many ways can you build a vented box?' Now what you mostly see there are the two box types still not commonly available at Circuit City: TLs and horns. I expect line arrays will start showing up regularly. As noted before, they'd love to print a lot more projects, which they pay for, if only writers would submit them.
Personally I see that this could turn around, though not for the best of reasons. From Wunhuanglo's comment I can see that he doesn't work in retail management. Disposable income is on the decline, not the rise, for the average American. If you don't believe it, check and see who the largest employer is in your state. Chances are like mine it's Walmart, followed by MacDonalds and Burger King. Not exactly where one gets rich quick. Manufacturing jobs are heading to China, and they're not coming back. The good news is that thanks to Chinese manufacturing you can go to Walmart and buy an air conditioner or TV for 77 bucks; the bad news is that while our retail costs for manufactured goods are down so are average incomes. Family income is holding, but only because both mom and dad have jobs. People that used to get health benefits as part of their package now have to pay for it. Yes, those at the top of the heap are doing quite well. But the top of that heap is getting to be a smaller place with every passing day.
While Chinese manufacturing also means that there will still be plenty of $29.95 speakers at Best Buy there will also be a demand for better quality goods at prices less than that of the average SUV, and that's where the resurgence of DIY could take hold.
Going back to the original question, I think that Dave Weems book belongs in every DIYers library, and probably Vances as well. Consider mine perhaps; though I've rendered most of the projects in it obsolete compared to my subsequent efforts, there's still a lot of value there for the newbie. There are lots of others as well, all it takes is a bit of effort to find them.
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