Speakers to hang on to for LIFE


After 9 years with my Proac Response 3s, I recently decided to change speakers. As you can tell, I'm not an upgrade fever patient. I want something I can live with for years & I think the best advice I'm gonna get will be from those who have & are still living with their speakers for an extended period of time. Please tell me why too. Thanks.Bob.
ryllau
I was going to bring up the flexibility and elegance of my N805s, but Nrenter pretty much covered everything I had to say, right down to the natural cherry preference.

I think I'll always have a use for these speakers. In a few years they'll be "out of style". After that, they'll be forever "classics".
N.E.A.R Speaker's for myself.I have modified sets,but some manufactures I have talked to still use them for some of their reference speaker's which is quite amazing considering they have been out of production for a few years.
That being a drawback and the the crossover's should be brought up to date with new components.

Both the M15's and M50's are great speaker's that I will probably hang onto till my last days unless I hit the lottery and can buy another system for one of my mansion's.

There are other speaker system's that are better of course,but not for the $$ and to my ears.
Kharma Ceramique 1 , have had them in my system for last 4 years. I have heard many other dynamic speakers but these are the best period, they're keepers. The other 2 speakers that I would keep for ever are the Soundlabs and the Avantgarde.
I will hang onto my Proac Super Tabs.. I've had these for maybe 15 yrs. This was some of the best 500 I ever spent. I'm looking for speakers right now and I will find another use for the proacs. I recently upgraded to CJ tube gear and they sound great. I'm also using a velodyne sub with them but it is had to get attached to a sub.

It funny, I just purchased some speakers (Snell K.5mkII)for HT and have been swapping back and forth. They are both great in there own way but have a different flavor. The Snell are merlot with the Proacs are a pinot noir.. I like the taste of both.. Now to find a nice cab..
Interesting post. I support two of the points made here, first older speakers probably cannot beat the (best of the) newer speakers, and second, the "best" manufacturers (designers) seem to come out with the designs having the most longevity. I owned ADS L810's for 17 years and wish I hadn't sold them. They were designed (I believe) by Michael Kelly of Aerial fame. I currently have Alon V MkII's (an open baffle MF/HF-enclosed LF design) and really enjoy the detailed, open, yet dynamic sound. Since the basic sound quality is what I like, I plan to keep them and upgrade drivers with Alnico magnet models from Alon. These were designed by Carl Marchisotto, who also designed the Dahlquist DQ20's (mentioned several times on this post), and continues to gain fame with his new Exotica Grand Reference ($125,000)and Lotus Elite Signatures, both also open baffle designs, with lineage to the DQ20's. I know less about the ProAcs, but weren't these mostly designed by the same guy (a Stewart Tyler?). Also Isreal Blume-Coincident and Alan Yun-Silverline, and others. Some guys just know what they are doing.