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

Wow, so many comments.  Both informative and some insulting.  Interesting.

In my opinion, cabinet making has improved greatly over the years.  However, there are some excellent speakers out there 10 years and older that If I could grab (without losing my shirt) I would.

1.  Martin Logan Statement 2.  I've attended many audio shows over the decades and these are still some of the best I've heard.  Good luck finding a set and also good luck getting them into your room.

2.  Many of the speakers mentioned by others in this post are also excellent.

3.  Goldmund Apologues (spelling?).  Heard them at Robertson Audio back in the day in LA.  Oh my word, they were excellent. Never had an artist walk out of the speakers, sit at the piano, bass player and drummer do the same and simply blow me away at the sound.

I forgot the electronics, but keep in mind that you are also listening to the electronics used at the time also, not just the speakers.  Also, the dealer played the album on the stupidly expensive (at the time $35,000) Goldmund turntable.  

Being a retired (recently) Electrical and Electronics Engineer and a current Track and Field Coach, I always tell my student/Athletes that there is always someone out there faster and can jump further or higher than you.  Just be the best you can be is what matters.

There is always a piece of equipment or system out there better that what we have (most of us).  So, a little kindness please.  I've seen equipment designed as one offs by a Manufacturer just for a particular customer that was just too expensive and time consuming to market, that will blow anything out there away.  So, yes, there is always something better.

I still to this day remember the outstanding sound of my Uncle's Thiel Type A speakers.  I bet they still would sound outstanding.

enjoy

Looking at this question, I am realizing how hard it is. In order to answer it, you must be familiar with a number of speakers brands… say five and what they sounded like ten years ago and now. More would be better. It would be really hard to compare random ten year old speakers with different speakers, since there are so many different flavors and each person has such particular tastes and listening abilities.

So ten years typically makes an important difference. Brands that I have known in the comparison include Sonus Faber, B&W, DynAudio, Kef and a couple more. Each maintained their house sound while making overall improvements.

So, the final part of the question… what does compete mean? I guess it means that in side by side test there is no competition… the newer is better, easy call. Or does it mean a notable improvement that most folks would recognize regardless of their overall liking of the house sound? So in the former case no and the later case yes.

I’m just not sure what to do with the dredged up two or three speakers that became ledgendary like Quad and never go out of favor… these are outliers. The vast majority of speaker companies that have remained in business continue to make significant improvements over time, decade by decade.

My Audio Physic Avanti III speakers are the best I have owned.  They were Michael Fremer's reference speaker for a while. 

My Yamaha NS1000 speakers serve me well in my second system, one speaker I won't be parting with anytime soon

I recently replaced my 9 year old Wilson Alexia 1's.  I replaced them with the Alexx V's so not an apples too apples comparison.  As I've said in an earlier post I felt the Alexia's held up well and were 70% of the Alexx V's especially in the mids and highs.