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

“I'm stuck on ESLs. If you can find Acoustat 2+2s in decent shape, add subs and really big SS amps. You will have an amazing line source system. ”

No need for either, keep them away from walls and they do well.

I used to run them off a nad 208 ( 600wpc into 2ohms) but found they like my tube jolida brc1000 best. I have the rare carver loudspeaker slipped in to give a little bass boost and it has hooography circuit optimized for planars, sounds better than anything else I have heard

I've had a similar experience to the OP. I've been to 3 audio shows in the last few years and I have determined that it would take a huge amount of money to beat my current late 90's system - Thiel CS6 speakers, Krell KRC-2 and KSA 300S. These speaker are about 25 years old and when I come home and play the same tracks I heard at the show I sit there and shake my head in disbelief. Except for a very few speakers (MBL 101E Mk II or Von Schweikert Ultra 11's for example) my Thiels hold up against pretty much anything.

I have listened to rooms where the cabling and power conditioning cost more than my entire system and I wasn't impressed. BTW, I am lucky to have a large listening room but I haven't done any audiophile room treatment. I have lots of absorption and diffusion (book shelves, CD shelves, equipment racks, couch, chair, ottoman, desk, etc) and when I play a good recording the speakers absolutely disappear. I've had non-audiophile friends listen slack jawed and finally ask me, "how does it do that?"

I honestly don't think that the state of the art in playback has progressed much in the last 25 years unless you get into 6 figure components. There are a lot of wealthy people in the world who will pay big bucks for something that they can show off to their friends but an audiophile of modest means can put together a killer system for a reasonable amount of money.

Compared to forty years ago, most speaker companies are nothing more than cabinet makers that toss in off the shelf drivers. A year ago, I read a rave review of some $1800 a pair PSB speakers then did a check at Madisound and found they spent under $100 for all the drivers, the tweeters were about $30.

Oh, I’m sure all were “modified” for the builder.

I don’t know of any modern speakers that can outperform my full range acoustat 2+2, ADS 1230 or my energy Veritas 2.8’.
I have some custom built speakers that are modern ( 5 years old?) with $500 RAAL tweeters, they’re still not as good as the ‘stats or the 2.8’s, so much for modern… 

+1Avalon and Tidal. The Rockport Arrakis is definitely one as well. Not made any more and I haven’t heard it but they get immense praise on the forums. 

Lots I’m sure but Ohm Walsh series 3 and newer come to mind. Probably series 2 as well. It’s only the originals that came about in the early 80s that I can assert with confidence were not current big-league competitive. Those come up a bit short on resolution detail and accuracy. Many have been upgraded by users since which fixes that.