Are modern speakers better than old speakers?

More often than not, modern speakers look better than old speakers.

Shadorne, yes, good clarification, MDF with a wood veneer.

Hello All,

I had a very illuminating and thought provoking experience today: I auditioned a pair of B&W 802D speakers. I had advised the dealer that I was an analogue fanatic and that I would appear with my LPs. I arrived at the dealer who knew nothing about this arrangement - the message had not been passed on. He quickly rustled up a entry level turntable and preamp and hooked it up to the 802D speakers, played a couple of tracks from my LPs and they sounded terrible. He then hooked up a Cd system to the speakers and they sounded a bit better but not as good as my vinyl. Needless to say I did not purchase the speakers but revelled in the jewels I have at home and reflected a bit.

The dealers was not set up for music buffs, it was set up for surround sound home theatre. and I think the answer to the question of old speakers versus new speakers lies there.

Today speakers are made with the home theatre market in view while the old speakers were made for solely the music lover and sounded so.

I have a pair of 1980 B&W 801 which sound phenomenally musical compared to what I heard today. A home audition would have been a fairer comparison but that wasn't on the cards. If there was an improvement it would have been minimal and not worth the $12,000.00 price tag.

I'm sorry for such a heterodox opinion but that's how I see it. I guess it's what you want from your speakers but I think we are all audio?

I am a Merlin speaker fan. Now I haven't personally auditioned speaker's produced 15-20 years ago by them, but I'm going to bet from reading forum enteries that my modern units are substantially improved. BTW, I use these for 2 channel only.

Nothing wrong with old. I come from an extended family of musicians and we had an original JBL Paragon growing up. My father had it for 50 years and it sounded great, especially on the big band, jazz and R & B records he played on. They always evoked a memory of earlier times, something that modern speakers could not recreate. I will always remember their retro sounds. I have a pair of KEF 104s that are 21 years old that recreate vocals better than newer professional grade ATCs I own.