There is no doubt that, over the last twenty years, there has been some serious R&D performed that examined the behaviour of speakers - and our response to them. Canada's National Research Council has led the way in that regard - and the results can be "heard" through the likes of Paradigm, Energy, and psb speakers - to name just three.

However that does not mean that there are not older "vintage" speakers out there that can sound great as well.

And while many of them will suffer a variety of forms of deterioration (crossovers, cabinetry, drivers - all have their problems) a good speaker repair shop can restore them to essentially new condition.

In the case of the speakers that I use, the drivers will last forever so long as they are not physically abused (like when twits punch in the woofer cones etc.) however the crossovers / switches will almost always need to be refurbished after 10-20 years, and in one case the joint in one of the cabinets had to be re-glued and braced internally. Luckily a complete refurb, at an excellent local speaker shop, only costs $300 per speaker. Given that they easily compare to today's speakers costing in the $2-5k range, I considered it a good enough investment that I've now had all eight of the ones that I currently use done.

They will outlive me.

Jeff Mackwood