Are modern speakers better than old speakers?

Jaapjess,

If you like their sound and they're working well, I would keep them "as is". As Shadorne said "some progess" and truth be told, probably not as much as a lot of manufactuers would have you believe.

If you like how the speakers sound, nothing else matters. My system is composed of many older components, each picked by me, and for me.

Modern speaker designs, do have the edge over older speaker designs, and for many reasons. However, exactly which modern designs sound "better", than their older opponents, is left for the listener to decide.

You may need to get out for a good listen to some of the newer speaker systems (this will give you an idea regarding replacement cost) VS...what you have now. You may even go home VERY HAPPY!

Dave

A very good question, I am in the same predicament, wondering if I should replace my 1980 B&W 801 with the 802D as technology has advanced so far, especially with the diamond coatings on the 802 tweeters. The 801 still sound terrific but I have had them for 27 years and wonder if it is just being used to them. To compare properly should entail a home audition which I'm not so sure will be possible.

I'm wondering if the improvement would be worth the price of the new speakers or just purely incremental?

Great thread.

I think you should divide two types of speakers: the dipoles (electrostatics, full range ribbons and magnetostats) and the cone (moving coil) speakers. The full range Apogee ribbons are no longer being made (for almost 20 years) but they are still very good and still competitive with most of the planars today (they are maybe even better!). Older Soundlabs sound still very good. Some say the older Magnepans (>20 years) like the original Tympanies are still the best Magnepans. The old JBL giant studio monitors (4350?) from the late 70's are very ugly but they still sound good and many audiophiles love them. Many of today's cone speakers are more detailed (hyperdetailed), are very revealing in the treble and therefore they could sound a bit "sterile". They are better technically, but I don't know if they are more "musical".
PS: The odd technology speakers like the omni's sounded odd during their prototype period but still sound odd to me in their most up to date iterations.

Chris

Most, if not all, are.