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Loudspeakers have we really made that much progress since the 1930s?

Since I have a slight grasp on the history or loudspeaker design. And what is possible with modern. I do wonder if we have really made that much progress. I have access to some of the most modern transducers and design equipment. I also have  large collection of vintage.  I tend to spend the most time listening to my 1930 Shearer horns. For they do most things a good bit better than even the most advanced loudspeakers available. And I am not the only one to think so I have had a good num of designers retailers etc give them a listen. Sure weak points of the past are audible. These designs were meant to cover frequency ranges at the time. So adding a tweeter moves them up to modern performance. To me the tweeter has shown the most advancement in transducers but not so much the rest. Sure things are smaller but they really do not sound close to the Shearer.  http://www.audioheritage.org/html/profiles/lmco/shearer.htm
128x128johnk
erik_squires
5,268 posts
 
Not as many high-end dome or ring tweeters have ferrofluid as they used to plus Air Motion Transformer (AMT, i.e. Heil) and ribbon tweeters have no need.

Not including ferrofluid can also lower the resonant frequency of a tweeter, allowing it to be crossed over lower than otherwise.

Best,

Erik


tmare
44 posts
 
Very interesting read. Thank you, guys.
johnk's avatar
johnk OP
1,490 posts
 
The question was have we made much progress since the 30s not whats best or what fits homes best or what costs least or what modern consumers enjoy today but have we made much progress since and I still feel we have not since this is what my experience shows. This is not my bias towards collecting or vintage I design modern have for many years before I got into vintage to learn about the past. Didn't get into vintage because I thought it would perform better I honestly thought it wouldn't but was proven wrong. If a 30s loudspeaker design with slight changes can compete with the best of modern I know of no other field were that maybe true. Thus why I posted.
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,333 posts
 
You have answered your own question. I think you are indeed biased. Speaker Designs since the mid 70's and early 80's have been significantly better than earlier eras. I agree that things have not much improved since then (diminishing returns maybe?)
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
1,368 posts
 

johnk, Why do you have trouble understanding that 30s speakers may perform as well or better than current speakers FOR YOU and your listening preferences, but others find that much progress has been made since then and prefer current speakers. I’d bet that you couldn’t find a single speaker manufacturer who would be interested in doing reproductions of speakers from the 30s.

I see this discussion playing out all the time.  Someone insists that everyone should want what he likes or owns. It just doesn't work that way.

If you want to discuss patents and when concepts were first published, you can probably find a better place to do it.

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