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Owning the speakers you dreamed of 20 years ago

Does speaker technology really change that much?  As I'm listening to my Klipsch Heresy's in a bedroom setup, I decided to look up to see what $3k or so could buy me today used and was shocked to see the speakers I used to drool over, when I was done looking at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition ;), were available for a quarter or less of the money.

Revel Ultima
Sonus Faber
JM Lab Mezzo 

And more, are all available to buy used.

Seriously these were speakers I would daydream about.  How do they sound today compared to a speaker that you would spend $3k on new or even a few years old?  How could these $10k speakers from a time I can still remember, really sound like a $3k speaker?  My Klipsch's remind me that speakers even older and cheaper are irreplaceable to me, so why wouldn't I spend $3k for one of my old heroes?

What am I missing here?



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Showing 2 responses by douglas_schroeder

douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Evidently, you don't have much experience in comparison of vintage to current designs. 
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
noir59, you speak of the Ohm Walsh Model F? I refurbished a pair; you may wish to read about it here on the thread I started in regard to resurrecting that speaker. I also wrote about it in my review of the Ohm F5, article found at Dagogo.com 

Interesting how varied experiences are between enthusiasts! I found the speaker to have the usual engaging mushroom cloud soundstage, but as I worked with it, the performance woefully lacked in resolution compared to contemporary speakers, or even the F5. I had to remove half the dense cabinet material for the speaker to wake up and sound better. Among the speakers I use it is the least resolving. Imo, that driver simply does not have the capacity to render definition as newer speakers. 

I also owned the ET LFT-8A/B, and wrote at Dagogo.com about the conversion from A to B. Very nice, excellent value speaker. 

I would concur that these are great values. I would not agree that they perform near speakers that are higher up on the ladder. The performance spectrum at the top end is quite a ways from these speakers' performance. Speakers such as the King Sound King III, Legacy Audio Whisper DSW Clarity Edition, and Aspen Acoustics Lagrange L1 are in a completely different league. I consider the L1 to be a new genre of speaker. See my reviews of all these at Dagogo.com    :) 
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