I bought AR9s & Quad ESL63s new in the eighties, and KEF R107/2s a decade later. All three are still competitive with all but the finest (read most expensive) speakers I've heard to date, and I'm still using all three. Interestingly enough, the Quads are the only ones that haven't required ANY service in all these years!
I don't think there are too many new speakers that really improve on the very best of what was available going back 40yrs or more. Sure, they may be bested in one area, or another - heck that was true even when they were new, but even today, it's hard to do much better over all.
The biggest change in speakers in the last several decades has been in the lower price range. There are certainly far more good to very good speakers now than there used to be. It used to be a pleasant surprise when you could find a good speaker, now I think it's pretty hard to find a bad one.
I don't think there are too many new speakers that really improve on the very best of what was available going back 40yrs or more. Sure, they may be bested in one area, or another - heck that was true even when they were new, but even today, it's hard to do much better over all.
The biggest change in speakers in the last several decades has been in the lower price range. There are certainly far more good to very good speakers now than there used to be. It used to be a pleasant surprise when you could find a good speaker, now I think it's pretty hard to find a bad one.