Loudspeakers have we really made that much progress since the 1930s?

As usual LarryI has a balanced and measured post which means I agree with him.  There is no question that modern speaker design software and measurement tools have contributed to an overall improvement in speaker sound quality.  For those of us who were kicking tires in hifi stores in the 1960s and each decade since, I can say that there are fewer poor sounding speakers today than in years past.  This is especially true with lower price speakers and smaller speakers. 

But if we ignore price and size considerations, the very best vintage drivers and horns have some special musical qualities that are not equaled by today's speakers at any price.  I have only limited experience with the big Western Electric horns (and no experience at all with the Shearer horns mentioned by the OP) but each time I have heard them left no doubt they are capable of excellent sound quality.  On a much more accessible level, I find that my own speakers using a vintage 15" Jensen paper cone woofer and Altec 32A horn with 802-8G compression driver (dating probably from the 1970s) are very satisfying musically. 

Johnk gave a good description of the sonic advantages of good vintage speakers, one borne out in my experience as well.  I would just emphasize the realistic dynamic swings that a good vintage speaker can provide, both low-level, subtle shifts in dynamics, and loud-level dynamic peaks.  All without sounding stressed or compressed.

The diversity of opinions in this thread demonstrates once again the diversity of viewpoints in audio, which is a good thing in my opinion.  We approach the listening experience with different attitudes, priorities, life experiences, etc. which gives rise to different views on whether a particular speaker (or amplifier or whatever) sounds "good" or not.  I am always surprised by the posted reactions to a different rooms at a hifi show I attended.  Some rooms that I considered very poor are praised by others.  It reminds me of how people can view a work of art and come away with such different reactions to it.

In the case of vintage speakers, the picture is especially cloudy because so few people have actually heard the great sounding speakers from the 1930s and 1940s.  Especially in carefully set up systems.  Too many are making judgments based on what they think old speakers should sound like or what they recall from hearing Altecs or Klipschorns years ago, rather than actual experience. 

For myself I came to the vintage world and to horns in particular quite reluctantly.  For whatever reason I am very sensitive to the "honk" or "shriek" produced by many horns.  For decades each time I heard a horn speaker, I had the same negative reactions and wondered how anyone could tolerate such a colored sound.  Then I had a chance to hear some speakers using Western Electric horns and drivers and discovered how good they could sound.  As noted by several posters in this thread, a really good vintage speaker has a special musicality that modern speakers just don't provide, at least in my opinion.  And certain horns do NOT have the honk or shriek that drives me the wall.  One of those horns is the Western Electric 32A which can blend seamlessly with a large paper cone woofer, and fortunately the Altec version of the 32A is still readily available.  My own speakers use the Altec 32A with compression drivers and woofers that qualify as vintage but not from as far back as the 1930s.  I won't say my speakers can compete with the Shearer speakers described by the OP but they do things for me that are musically satisfying in ways that modern speakers do not.  And that includes modern horn speakers such as the Classic Audio Loudspeakers (heard half a dozen times but only at shows) and Avant Gardes.  Other folks might not react the same, but that just goes back to the diversity in this hobby.  To each his own.

Whart,

I use an Altec 802-8G compression driver on the 32A horn.  Woofer is a Jensen P15LL which is a 15" with paper cone.  Both drivers have Alnico magnets.  The drivers and horn date from the 1970s, I believe, but are still available on Ebay at reasonable prices.  The drivers and horns are just the raw materials, however; the trick to getting them to sound so good is the crossover.  I have spent way too much time getting the crossover just the way I like it, but I am happy to provide details to anyone who is interested.  Just send me a message through the Agon email system. 

Larry,

Yes, there is something about the old school paper cone woofers.  The Jensens may not go as deep as modern woofers or have the same impact, at least in my bass reflex cabinets, but they somehow are able to blend seamlessly with the 32 horn and compression driver to create a coherent sound source. 

Coherency is one of my top criteria for judging speakers.  I want a speaker to sound like a single full-range speaker, not a 2-way or 3-way.  If this means giving up some extension in the bass or the highs, that's an acceptable tradeoff for me.   

Do you have contact info for this cabinet builder in TN?

Johnk is right---Experience does trump conjecture.  How can anyone argue otherwise?  The problem here is that so few audiophiles have actually heard the speakers he is referencing.  My experience is not as vast as Johnk or Larryi but I have enough exposure to quality vintage speakers to give Johnk the benefit of the doubt.  Did anyone here attend the 2011 or 2012 RMAF?  If so you had a chance to hear a matched pair of Western Electric 757 speakers in the Silbatone room.  Not exactly 1930s but these monitor speakers from the 1940s really opened my eyes to what vintage speakers can do.

Great article by Art Dudley in October Stereophile.  He comes down squarely on the side of the best vintage speakers not having been surpassed or even equalled by modern speakers.

I can remember puzzling over "vowel colorations" when JGH used that term many eons ago.  I wasn't sure what he meant then, and I really don't have any better understanding now.  Can you explain how you understand it?  It must be something I am not tuned into.

Yes, this thread is very interesting and well worth reviving.  Since the last posts here, I am now running a 3-way vintage speaker built around a YL Acoustic (Yoshimura Labs) compression driver and horn.  To my ears, it provides a very natural, warm, dynamic sound.

Johnk, I noticed you don't have an AudioGon system page with details of your setup.  Any chance we can twist your arm and get you to post a description and perhaps some photos?

LarryI, thanks for the nice comments.  The last time I was at the DejaVu store, I heard a really nice sounding setup that used the YL 5500 in a big horn with a 200 Hz crossover and 15" Goodmans woofers in open baffle.  It had a Jensen RP-302 crossing in at 10K.  Voices were very realistic over these speakers.

@Shadorne, 

I am glad you enjoy your modern speakers with 30 do less distortion.  The last thing we need is anyone else driving up the cost of "inferior" vintage gear.