So like Theodore Sturgeon says in an essay, "always ask the next
question."

Since manufacturing is moving out and certain designs of speakers are played out, what's left and where's the market?

My take on this is Boutique Audio: handcrafted specialized product
which is sought by the discerning consumer but impractical to
produce by Polk or Bose(tm) or Klipsch.

To that end, the next phase of the audio hobby might very well be
cottage industry on a localized basis.

Also, since the designs we are seeing go considerably past the
golden ratio box with a hole in it, my notion was to take
the carefully considered and modelled designs we see from the
TL, front horn and back horn specialists and recruit art galleries
to display them. That or perhaps coffee houses become your
showroom... no retail space is secured. There is a constant flow
of viewers with an eye toward the same level of sophistication as an
art object which has the added benefit of making music. :-)

This sculptural, aural and tactile aspect of the newer designs is something which I have not really seen discussed much. As a non-
professional I have always been interested in design and
architecture. So I'm thinking that these designs could be displayed
in an exhibit fashion.

I believe this Think Tank approach is valuable and it is very early on in the discussion of what the next wave of American invention will be. We always have to ask the next question like Sturgeon says.

The other is for those who don't accept that what's out there already is as good as it gets, and keep looking for better ways. I'd put myself in that category, for while I may be past the stage of DIY for its own sake I still believe that the best speaker cabinet I'll ever build is the next one.

I think it's a worthwhile venture. And I would add that the graphic skills of (I think her name is Sherri who did the logo for AudioRoundtable) or someone similarly skilled in the art of the
graphic presentation and layout would also be necessary. I have no
html skills at all, nor do I have a digital camera, scanner, and
various other accessories necessary to build a useable FAQ.

But working together, I think a start can be made. Several of the
craftspeople involved on an active level with the hobby live in
apartments like myself. What we can do without a cabinet shop as a
subcontractor is limited. With a cabinet shop doing the panel cutting, assembly and finishing can be done in a fairly confined space so long as ventilation is available-- _in season_ in my case being from Wisconsin. :-)

[I've never gotten any comment from my neighbors here on the
second floor of the building about the occassional sawing and
hammering that goes on in here-- sometimes during the Opera on
Saturday afternoon from the Met.]

So what would the first question of the FAQ be or what is the
first question that any of the readers... especially you _lurkers_
... want it to be? ;-)

I'll start it out which only seems only fair:

You've decided on a design you'd like to execute.

What is the proper way to do a cut list? Is there software that
can take a given panel size and spit out a cut list which is most
efficient and conserves the most product? Or is this still something
that has to be done with an architectural scale rule and graph paper?

On a related topic and before I forget, the most recent Fine Woodworking magazine has a reference for a handheld calculator for
doing conversions from inches to millimeters back and forth. It's from Calculator Industries and is called The Pocket Handyman III. I have not gotten the URL for it yet, but I could put it in a separate
post.

Yeah, $6K a day in the hospital is steep. But 30 years ago I'll bet that it would have been three days, $3K and funeral expenses. $30K worth of drugs is serious business and I have to believe they bought your life.

I think I anger you because you have the impression that I drive a Lexus SUV and don't notice anyone else from inside my tinted windows. Far from the truth - I drive a Lexus 300, but I got it last year when both my parents died and it's 9 years old. They got it from my sister who gave it to them when she bought a new car. I certainly couldn't afford it on my own.

Yes, there certainly are a lot of people who struggle, and retail is the place to find them if you're not going to your local diner to talk to the waitresses. But my point was and is that far fewer people are in truly dire straits today than ever before, and many of the most vocal about how hard it is to make ends meet are much better off than their parents and grandparents were.

Did my daughter go to private school? Yes- because private schools have endowments and she managed to get financial assistance that made my actual out of pocket the same as it would have been at UNH. UNH,like most state schools, is dead broke and you can forget about any financial aid there.

Fully half of my drug expenses were for IVs: sugar water. I asked my doctor if typical markup of the $30k of drugs I got was the same as the typical 50% margin in other retail operations, for an actual cost of $15k. He said they probably cost more like $1k; they make huge profits on the insured to make up for what they lose treating the uninsured or Medicare patients.

You don't anger me at all. But I'm surprised that you'd take the stance that you do when you admit that you can't afford a new Lexus any more than I can. My point is that being in retail I see first hand what people are buying, who's buying it, and more important who's not spending because they can't afford to. The descrepancy between the number of those who can afford to spend a lot and those who can't afford to spend at all is the widest today than I've seen in 25 years of retail management experience, and that includes during recessions.

Finally, my parent's generation typically had one person supporting the family, and managed comfortably. June and Ward Cleaver were the rule, not the exception. Our generation typically has both parents working, and not because they want to, but because they have to. That in and of itself is not a bad thing, but when both parents in the average family are working and still can barely cover expenses(and current Dept of Labor statistics as well as my personal observations bear that out) the economic forecast is not a rosy one.

Charlie

How about a third route? Wanting something to call your own. After completing a few DIY projects, I've come to realization that the feeling of Pride does a pretty good job of covering up any downsides of DIY. Even if you can't beat the quality of mass marketed products, at least I can brag about doing it myself. I've come to a point where I can't even get myself to build from a kit. I've to start from scratch. Next step would be to do my own designs.

Gar.