Old vs. New

IMO opinion speakers in particular are much better today than days of old. Remember those super wide, shallow depth kabuke speakers in 70s &80s? There were ofcourse good models from AR and others but 95% of them deserve their place in garages all across the world.....they were not that great. Amps, tuners, tables are to some degree a different story but I am a modern audio guy for sure.

I think it depends on the component. For my money, speakers have not "improved" in the last 20 years or so. I'll hold my KEF 107/2s, or Quad ESL 63s against anything I've heard under $10k since their introductions. However some components have improved... especially if you go back 30+ years. Turntables for example, IMO there are more very good tables available now than during the seventies - the heyday of vinyl! Although I'm not a nut for high end interconnects, I have to admit those too have improved a lot. In general, I think the improvements since the mid eighties have been much smaller than those made in the twenty years before that. One area that has "improved" (if you can call it that), is in the VERY high end of the market... there I hear things I never heard before, but unfortunately $20k+ speakers & comparably pricy electronics are way off my radar, so irrelevant for me.I still love listening to the latest products, but I don't find too many major components pulling at me enough to change, as long as the "old stuff" is still performing as it should.

Cliff

I agree with Elizabeth that, in some cases, yesterday’s components truly had “a warmer, romantic sound” which some prefer.

Example: In 1982 I purchased a Conrad Johnson PV2 preamplifier for $485 - and that included a phono stage! I sold it off some years ago but have very fond memories of this piece. About a month ago, in wanting that CJ tube sweetness again, I bought a Premier 16 preamplifier on Audiogon which retiled for $8,000. In some ways I actually like the PV2 more than the Premier 16!

And consider tuners – tube models from the 70’s seem to be the most highly acclaimed!

I think there have been large gains in cabinet technology and driver tech has come along too. The 90s wasnt all that long ago but there is no doubt the speakers from 70s into 80s have been bested.

"The 90s wasnt all that long ago but there is no doubt the speakers from 70s into 80s have been bested." In some ways, no doubt, but the Quad ESL 57 from a couple of decades before that is competitive with many modern speakers...in some ways. Likewise the Klipschorn is competitive with modern speakers, particularly if you have a DH SET amp.....in some ways. That one was authored in the mid 1940s. The Ionovac tweeter, Electro Voice Patrician, JBL Paragon, they all are competitive....in some ways. Very few speakers have it all, and none have it all at a real world price. So in the end most of us are going to compromise, if decades old speakers speak to what we are looking for, so much the better. But they are not for everyone.