Beyond the Ariel

[musical noise]

Dear Lynn,

A couple of days from now will mark the third anniversary of this great thread that became "the journey beyond the Ariel". Good designs do take long to be cemented into one's head as well as to be implemented and ironed out. I, and am sure many others want to know your progress in the last few months that this thread has been idle, so would you mind sharing your triumphs, frustrations and any new developments thus far?

[FlorianO]

With several years down this thread, and many thousands of posts, I have to admit that this thread hosts a recrod (at least for me): the longest, most pathetic, and -- ultimately -- complete and utter miss of the initial stated goals: A (relatively) easily to replicate OB-based speaker design.

While it initially started promising, with some designs floating around, it degenerated into esoteric discussions that -- unless you're an AES fellow that cares about their "online prestige", or a manufacturer impressing with the depth of though going into their designs -- does not mean a thing to the 90% of the "unwashed masses".

And, yes Lynn -- alas and despair -- the vast majority of those that cared to read & follow this thread faill into that category: With limited amounts of time and budgets not everyone has the will and/or budget to follow your "intelectual journey" to absolutely nowhere, nor become an "well-acomplised designer".


As such, all the lamenting / "holier than thou'" grand-posing posts are, in retrospect, a bitter joke -- in particular the ones lamenting on big bad corporations lack of vision and focus on results.

All in all we (at least I) didn't get inspired to "carry the torch of the grand old" and spent countless of hours on a fruitless, intelectual, navel-gazing pursuit -- Welcome to the 21st century of iPods, MP3s, multi-channel receivers with bass shakers mounted in cozy sofas and (at the top of it all) instant gratification.


So yes -- here goes nothing. How pathetic.

[kevinh]

For many we didn't expect a cookie cutter design handed to us. I would guess if Lynn comes up with a design he will share it. He started the thread to help his rehab IIRC.

HE doesn't owe the readers anything. I have enjoyed the thread, some of the discussions I have understood, some are beyond my knowledge. Nothing wrong with that. We are fortunate that people like Lynn, Nelson, Gary P Bud and others share their ideas with us.

Why be bitter, go to a thread that has a design or play with some of the ideas.discussed

[soongsc]

I think there are things to be learned embeded in the thread, it's hard to finger it out. But it certainly has inspired lots of thoughts and ideas as many of the other threads. Even a cable thread.

[BudP]

I have yet to stumble across a worthless thread on this forum. This one in particular explored some of the very best thinking of some of the smartest contributors/explorers in audio design. Lynn, John K, MJK, Midge, Soongsc, the list of contributors and their information is just staggering, and to find it all in one place equally so. I have been through the thing twice and I can't even say that about the original EnABL thread.

Now that I think about it, I was even moved to write some poetry at one point!

Bud

[CLS]

Originally Posted by BudP

...

Now that I think about it, I was even moved to write some poetry at one point!

Bud

Hi,

Would you please share?

[soongsc]

http://www.amazon.com/Pearls-Shell-V.../dp/0895819422
The author is 92. Better snatch it and send it in for an autograph.

[slowmotion]

I think this thread is one of the more interesting here at diyaudio.
Thanks to Lynn and all contributors!

[JohnL]

Originally Posted by BudP

I have yet to stumble across a worthless thread on this forum. This one in particular explored some of the very best thinking of some of the smartest contributors/explorers in audio design. Lynn, John K, MJK, Midge, Soongsc, the list of contributors and their information is just staggering, and to find it all in one place equally so.

I agree entirely. This thread was an opportunity for some of the greatest minds in our hobby to brainstorm, even if much like a brainstorming session it got off track sometimes and was hard to follow. There's lots of good info in here, even if it takes a couple days of reading to find it. Honestly, someone should take this offline someplace and index it for topics.

John

[Bigun]

I managed to read the first 10 pages of this thread, then I noticed there were quite a lot more. I read every 100th page to see if I could find a flavour of things. This thread is huge, no way I have time to read this in one sitting, it will have to be savoured like a fine whisky over some months.

But like some others, I started reading this thread looking for something a bit more concrete in terms of ideas for a speaker build and at the end it does indeed look to have petered out into the wilderness. That's not a criticism of the contributors, but it seems to me that such a good thread could be even better if a DIY project were to yet come out of it because otherwise I'm afraid it's not going to be any practical use to 'regular part time DIY'ers' like me.