a breakout box explaining technical terms used in the paper. This is a good option (as long as the explanations are written to be comprehensible to the nonspecialist reader!)
Aye, and that's the rub. I have used text boxes a few times in my books, but in the end they take space that is necessary for telling the prime story. Something is sacrificed in print books with a limited page count. Even color was not possible in mine. It is very constraining. And then there is the question: how simplistic does the breakout box content need to be? At what intellectual level should the explanation begin? I consumed multiple chapters just to explain what a frequency response curve means - start with dB, loudness, pitch/frequency, the meaning of irregularities, tilts, and so on. In fact, I wrote much of an entire book explaining it. Writing an explanatory text while defining all terms used within it is an encyclopedic endeavour if one is thorough, and it does not, in my opinion, qualify as "For Dummies".
That is why I put some effort into the website accompanying the 4th edition, especially the PowerPoint slide shows that, I think, explain much of the book content in a more digestible format. But even these slide shows have been considered too complex for much of the ASR audience, and simplified "For Dummies" versions suggested.
I have spent decades presenting and discussing this content to audiences ranging from CEDIA members (many are audiophiles) to engineers, and general university students, and listening to the feedback and questions. ASR and other forum discussions have added another perspective which includes input from people of many very different backgrounds. Misunderstandings are frequent, even among people with technical backgrounds.
It seems to me that much more simplification in the "For Dummies" direction, simply will create "Dummies" who think they understand a subject that they really don't. This simply adds "noise" to the discussion.
Amir and Erin measure, present and discuss spinoramas and more - definitive data - in print and video forms. Their opinions have substance. The problem is that they cannot review all products on the market, but spinorama data is available now from other sources. If average audio enthusiasts want to competently interpret those data they will need to do some serious homework. Otherwise, we end up with misleading, seemingly simple, "room curves" as unreliable guides. Loudspeakers are not that simple, and bass problems in the listening room are not even considered - two chapters in my book, and about 30% of one's overall assessment of sound quality.
It is complicated . . .
