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are older speakers anywhere close to the new stuff?

I have had four Martin 4050 transflex speakers since the early l970's. I recently rebuilt them with all new drivers and upgraded the tweeters with Dynaudios D-28's. They sound great to me. However I would like to know what I'm missing compared to the new speakers of today. I live in an isolated area far from the nearest hi-end audio store. The Martins use two 10" Seas woofers (l6 0hm) and a curvilinear midrange along with the dynaudio tweeters. I would like some feedback on what others think of the sound quality of the martins compared to what is being made today. At the time the martins sold for around 12 to 15 hundred a pair.

Some might say they are bright in the front end, but i kind of like that. Especially with Jazz/sax music. The bass is very tight and defined and at high listening levels can be bone crushing. I also kind of like that
dvoss

Showing 1 response by sugarbrie

sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
The only thing I notice with older speakers (and it is not the sound) is many more have lower power ranges for the amplifier. For example, many current B&W bookshelf speakers are rated for amps ranging 30 to 150 watts. A lot of their 80s vintage bookshelf products ranged from 10 to 90 watts.


I use a pair of DM100i in my office powered by a 70s vintage Rotel receiver. They sound a lot better than a pair of DM601s I tried earlier. Not enough power to drive the 601s well. I think current higher powered Home Theater applications have forced speaker makers to change their approach to speaker design, sometimes to the detriment of music listeners.

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