Are advances in technology making speakers better?

 Advances in technology != advance in sound 

it could be but doesn't have to be

@kingbr 

I can relate, I have had the Evoke 20s for a year and a half and I couldn't be happier! Pure magic.

you are not being told to upgrade, you are told to give them your money. These greedy companies are out to make a profit and and their trick is to make new products that they claim is better than the old ones and you will be happier if you buy them. What a world we live in! 

"Advances in technology always makes technical products better"

well.......

advances mean an improvement in one or many aspects. Which then have to be applied to the product in a way that it improves the product. Not trivial at all. 

The famous story is with the Ferrari F40: when the F50 came out, with better measurements in every aspect than the F40, it was still slower. Engineers spent months trying to figure out why. At the end they just conceded, sometimes awesome design is just hard to beat, it's not only about improvements.

@jurnia

look at it the other way: what will validate it for you that you DON'T need to upgrade? Get some fancy speakers from Crutchfield, try them out and maybe you will find out how madly in love you are with your B&Ws 

@kingbr  I am somewhat confused with the Dyna names but you may be right :)

you mean you want big and expensive speakers? Those are the best! Everybody knows it!

@ghdprentice I am pretty sure he is just trolling 

"Most important component in a system is the speakers"

The most important component in your system is your worst component :)

@moonwatcher I agree you summed it up well. While the original problem by the OP didn't inspire me to get serious, the comments made it one of the most educational thread for me.

I think it's easier than ever to put together a horrible sounding system from a lot of money. It's also easy to buy a pair of cheap, active, wireless speakers and play music from your phone and get incredible sound. Technology can improve a lot, it's up to us how we adapt. Advances can make products cheaper, more accessible, easier to use, more accurate, longer-lasting, "faster", easier to integrate, etc. - if we are looking for sound quality improvement, it's on the list but just one of the many areas.

And I think there is truth companies trying to sell new releases for the sake of making money. Not in the audio business specifically but in the tech space in general. Saying that they are all honest is unfortunately way too optimistic. I have upgraded my phone 3 times in the last 10 years and I see so little improvement, I would be just as happy with my 2012 version as with the latest. But of course I don't spend 6 hours with my phone a day (only 4, haha!)

I don't know how much stock to put it in Steve Guttenberg's reviews, I rarely come away feeling more informed at the end. To me if's a mystery why he is multiple times more watched than e.g. NRD  

I am sure he has a lot of experience and knowledge but his eccentricity (which is cool and has entertainment value) shows in his reviews - again where NRD is always down to the numbers, measurements and facts, despite the jokes 

@cd318 

well, it's all subjective. I really meant "entertaining" as opposed to useful. But I am twisting my own words now. I don't have 20 or 10 minutes watching a stranger for pure entertainment value. I better learn something if I spend the time that I could use for other things.

@cd318

You are too kind!

I wish I knew as much about speaker design as most of you here do, but I am a pretty "thick" when it comes to hardware. It interests me but it is also too elusive, these are just pretty boxes to me.

I am so hands-on, I can’t learn from books. It only sticks with me if I get to peak inside and hear the difference. Your perspective on education is very true and also depressing.

Half or us are below average :)