"Aside from the IP issues involved what would be the incentive for someone to offer an expensive or unique driver in an innovative cabinet geometry to the general public. I mean if the enclosure was a novel design and the driver was perfectly suited to that situation; they would probably be marketting it for profit."

I am not sure that is the case with everybody. Not everybody wants to run a business. There are a lot of people who do it just for enjoyment and are looking for an outlet, some feedback, and a discussion. They are happy making a few speakers for relatives and friends. The problem with aX (really any formal magazine) is it takes many months to get an article in print and then any letters discussing the article take another couple of months to get in the magazine. Not many people are willing to sit and wait for this painfully slow process when the Internet provides a rapid way to present your ideas/work/designs and the feedback is almost instantaneous. Then again, some people are highly motivated to see thier work in print and are willing to wait. So I am not sure business options are a big consideration for or against sending an article to aX.

"My point is what would a magazine offer? Reffering back to your point that they are pretty pedestrian and rehashed articles; of which I agree BTW. I ask you as a result of your comparison to the internet and the fact that you have thought about this and your experience in DIY experimentation. I would be interested to know what types of articles of interest you would seek to read."

In the early editions of SpeakerBuilder the articles were very technical in nature and they not only presented speaker projects but also technical details on box design, crossover theory, and measurement techniques. I remember getting my hands on my first copy of Speaker Builder and not having a clue what they were talking about. It took me a while to come up to speed on the speaker theory and start to be able to read and appreciate the articles. The articles were also very diverse, everthing form building an ESL to the IMP articles. The last really good technical articles that I remember were Augspurger's TL articles just before the merger. What I see is a lot of small two way projects/kits and reviews by the husband and wife team that brought us the soldering iron toy, if I wanted reviews I would read stereophile.

Speaking as a DIY speaker builder and ignoring the electronics articles which don't interest me at all. I would like to see detailed articles on ESL, line arrays, single driver full range, big three way systems, open baffle designs, horns and TLs where the engineering trade-offs in the design are discussed and measurements made of the finished system. I would like to see more articles on measurement techniques with explanations of the strengths and weaknesses of the different methods. I would be interested in learning more about woodworking, veneering, and finishing from people who are excellent cabinet makers and woodworkers. Maybe some articles about baffle step and different ways of addressing this problem, some room placement studies for example.

I think aX needs go out and solicit new authors with fresh ideas, turn around the contributions and get them into print in less than two issues, publish responses and author's comments in the two issues following the article, they need stronger technical review of articles against what is currently SOTA or on the Internet to make sure the article has some merit/validity, stop publishing bunk that has been proven incorrect just to fill pages, publish articles as installments so the authors can put some meat into the discussion, no more articles by manufacturers/consultants being used as advertising for the product, and no more subjective reviews of products/kits. I think aX should be out on the Internet recruiting people to write articles on unique and interesting drivers and design, maybe even finding these types of projects with well known and proven amateur DIYers.

I would rather drop back to four issues a year dedicated to speaker building then 12 issues a year that typically take me less than an hour to read. If aX sits back and waits for the DIY community to come to them they are as good as out of business.

That is my 15 minute opinion,

Martin