Speakers: Anything really new under the sun?

I work with Vandersteen Audio. In the last 25 years Vandersteen has created a line of speakers with powered bass and 11 bands of analog EQ, so they fit int most any room. They have furthered driver technology using a unique sandwich of balsa and carbon fiber that carries a USA patent. They have created an inert carbon fiber box-in-a-box cabinet construction that measure as good as any other box invention to date. Vandersteen extended their "perfect piston" patented technology to tweeters incorporating this into four levels of speakers starting at $10K per pair. Meanwhile, they maintain the original product that put them onto the audio map, the notable Model 2 speaker. This Model 2 is now in its 8th generation of refinement. This is a part of the developments and the constant pursuit of materials and ideas that enhance your emotional involvement with your system. If you want to know more, pick up the phone and call Vandersteen. Richard Vandersteen is on the phone at sharing his enthusiasm for audio, and his over 50 years of knowldege, or come see him on April 7th in San Diego at Stereo Unlimited, and check out the Vandersteen Amplifiers that power the upper part of the speakers. Now that is unique, a high pass amplifier that does not have to power big woofers and is free to run with zero feedback.

They are not real new but ten years ago there was a company called some phase that made an inverted dome speaker where the theater was in the center I have a set they are tonally beautiful. As a point of reference I also have a pair of harbeth slh5 and a set of equation 25 had a pair of maggie 3.3 and a set of kef reference 3 so that may help you know what I like. I have no plans to chance the dome phase speakers nor the other two that I currently own. Regards 

I have owned a lot of speakers over the years and wanted to try something "new" and different and bought the Tekton Double Impact Monitors for $2,200. I absolutely love them.

I've been an audio nutjob since the 1980s. In the last ~15 years, all the audio that mattered to me had to fit in a 13' x 13' home office. Now I have 2 systems here: the main one is speakers + amp + sub + DAC + 2 headphone amplifiers; side-system is headphones only (2 headphone amps). As you can tell from this paragraph, high end headphones have become a big thing for me.

But I've also had 6 or 7 pairs of speakers, powered & passive, through this system over the years. Along with all the headphones, some consider SOTA/TOTL, I've concluded that what matters most (and always did) is IMPLEMENTATION. That's a combination of ingenious design, careful parts selection, great construction, and listening/listening/listening to one's own product.

Sure certain parts (mainly capacitors, resistors, air chokes, transformers) have reached new theoretical heights. But a bad designer can make a bad speaker out of spectacular parts; and the inverse.

Right now I'm auditioning a headphone mfr's loaner (ZMF Atrium) of a model that will do a wide launch in a week. The owner/designer is gifted: for this headphone he patented a new damping architecture for each earcup, and damned if it doesn't work totally & completely. This sound is spectacular, something completely different.

It's all about IMPLEMENTATION...

Wise post and interesting!

Thanks....

It’s all about IMPLEMENTATION...