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

@phusis 

I never said to limit yourself to one approach. But what you hear repeatedly is that people get high efficiency loudspeakers to support low powered amps that are deemed to sound better. That is not my experience, but that is why Howard Johnsons made 28 flavors. Also many classic speakers were very high efficiency because the amps they had back then were not very big. Efficiency was a big deal, back then, unfortunately time alignment was not. Also nobody took sub bass seriously. It was not until the late 70's that subwoofers creeped into the situation and due to the lack of adequate bass management were endlessly belittled to the extent that many audiophiles will not go near them even today.    

As far a digital EQ is concerned, it is not parametric EQ in the traditional sense, you draw target curves on a grid and the computer will apply them assuming the curve does not go outside boundaries. Once the system is flat down to 18 Hz I apply a rather standard target curve that increases bass up to 10 dB at 18 Hz, is back down to 0 dB by 100 Hz then tapers off slowly from 1000 Hz on up to 20 kHz which is down 9 dB. This allows stress free listening at high volumes giving the feeling of a live performance at volumes that are not destructive to iones hearing. I have one curve aside that has a notch filter at 3500 Hz in case I encounter a sibilant female or violin. I have not used it in over a year. It seems that the AtmaSphere MA2s have abolished sibilance in my system.

I still listen to a pair of Vienna Acoustics Mahler which I have since 2001, they sounded great and even better after upgraded crossover caps.

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.