The speakers in my main system are 40 years old. I paid $264 for them about 4-5 years ago. They do some things remarkably well. I'm sure they can be bettered but I enjoy them tremendously. I just don't see any reason to spend 10X more for a little improvement when I'm already enjoying myself so much.
Sound quality of Newer versus Older speakers
From a sound quality perspective, is there anything that newer speakers are doing better than older speakers. For reference, I have a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 300s which are amazing me with their ability to balance detail retrieval with an ability to avoid harshness (with the right ancillaries). My subjective perception is that this type of balance between resolution and refinement was more difficult to find in speakers from 20-30 years ago.