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

@daveyf ,

I record rare, out of print records to my hard drive all the time. The people who bring these records over are other audiophiles. Not a single person can reliably identify the recording vs the real record. I can go back and forth between analog and digital RIAA correction. This one is close. Most people cannot tell the difference. I notice an improvement in imaging on the digital side. A few others describe similar improvements. IMHO the people who prefer analog have uncontrollable expectation bias. There are evils used frequently in digital recordings like extreme dynamic compression which is very unfortunate. This is not the fault of digital, and there are many digital sources that are not compressed. IMHE it can go either way. Some analog records are better than their digital counterparts and vice versa. 

I think my own system is the best residential system I have ever heard, but I designed it to be that way and it is certainly not others cup of tea. This is not to say there are not improvements to be had. There are. I am sure it can be even better and I know where specific problems are that need to be addressed. Going back to analog is not on the list and never will be. 

Forgetting about digital vs analog sources, there are things you can do in the digital domain that are impossible to do in the analog domain either entirely or without unacceptable distortion. Crossovers are one example, correction of group delays and adjustment of amplitude are others.  

@mijostyn   I think we will have to agree to disagree. 

https://forum.audiogon.com/posts/2615738
 

you got my attention. I love my IRS Betas but I’m always looking for improvements. We have corresponded about implementation of DSP before to see if I find improvements (still having issues getting good readings thus process stalled). 
 

Now, I’m intrigued by the Pre-8 and wouldn’t mind being a Beta tester. I wonder how it could be implemented on my system. If it works, I guess my Allnic pre could be for sale…

is there a specific page for the beta tester program?  I looked with no luck. 

BTW, I have lived with AR3a which were nice for the time, moved into DQ10 which were a massive improvement, DCM TW which were nice, Mirage M3 which gave way to M1, to IRS Beta which were out aside during a stage in a smaller home and replaced with Aerial 8b.  Now back to the Betas and the 8b are on a secondary system  

thanks!  Juan

I was at an estate sale last year where the owner was selling his DCM Time Windows for $60. There wasn't a buyer for them. It seems the brand has been forgotten, unlike the Spendor and Klipsch products. I still have a pair of Spendor BC2's with their crossovers at 3K and 13K. Lovely. But I have no space for them, and listen instead  to what I can afford from KEF.

There are many fine speakers to listen to and many not so fine. However, once you get to listening for a long years those become your reference and that's fine but we can never own the best, why because it's subjective.  There are a lot of fine speakers and even ones you can afford.