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Speakers 10 years old or older that can compete with todays best,

I attend High End Audio Shows whenever I get a chance.  I also regularly visit several of my local High End Audio parlors, so I get to hear quite a few different speaker brands all the time.  And these speakers are also at various price points. Of course, the new speakers with their current technology sound totally incredible. However, I strongly feel that my beloved Revel Salon 2 speakers, which have been around for over ten years, still sound just as good or even better than the vast majority of the newer speakers that I get a chance to hear or audition in todays market.  And that goes for speakers at, or well above the Salon 2s price point. I feel that my Revel Salon 2 speakers (especially for the money) are so incredibly outstanding compared to the current speaker offerings of today, that I will probably never part with them. Are there others who feel that your beloved older speakers compare favorably with todays, newfangled, shinny-penny, obscenely expensive models?

kennymacc

Showing 2 responses by snilf

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snilf
220 posts
 

Comparing one’s own system to speakers heard at audio shows, stores, or even other people’s listening rooms is questionable at best. To know if some product might improve the SQ of one’s own system requires auditioning it at home for at least a week’s worth of critical listening.

That said, I own Von Schweikert, PSB and Magneplanar speakers (all full-range floor standers) and half a dozen lesser monitors; I’ve auditioned Martin Logan "The Quest" and three different iterations of B&Ws, each for weeks. Finally, friends in our local audio club have uncompromising rigs of various kinds: stacked Quads, Harbeths, Dynaudios, KEFs, MBL 101 Radialstrahlers in a specially constructed listening "room" built in consultation with an acoustician that is larger and more opulent than most people’s entire homes.... And yet, I have not found anything I prefer to my Scientific Fidelity "Teslas," built in the early 1990s. A bad review in Stereophile pretty much killed the company. Recently, Bill Legall at Millersound restored the drivers for me. They cost a mere $1000 in 1992 (I got them used), and they even look great. My second system has settled on the Magneplanar 1.6 QRs installed in an acoustically treated room just right for them, but the Teslas in my living room remain my favorites.

snilf's avatar
snilf
220 posts
 

@mikelavigne, mijostyn—

Gotta agree with mijostyn, even though I share Mike’s skepticism regarding DSP. In fact, I learned of a superlative digital (DSD SACD) "reference recording" from a post of Mike’s many months ago: Anna Netrebko’s DGG recital of opera arias called "Sempre Libera." Mike especially called attention to the glass harmonica on several tracks. (Note that this was before the recent scandal involving Ms. Netrebko’s support for Putin, and its consequences for her career.)

Turntables are beautiful technologies (or can be), and I do appreciate the nostalgic thrill of spinning LPs. But privileging vinyl for sound quality is really hard to defend rationally.

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