Are advances in technology making speakers better?

@grislybutter ah yes. I keep my phones for at least 5 years before moving on, even though others may chuckle at me. The only reason to upgrade is when it can't run the apps you want or because the new versions of software simply aren't written well enough (too much bloat) to not require a new, screaming processor. 

As others note, when Andrew Jones or any other engineer sit down to design a speaker, the targeted size of that speaker, and the market they are shooting for of course limits what can be done. 

But I don't think MoFi would have been happy if Andrew had come up with a 24" concentric driver in a 250 lb. cabinet, even if he could have grabbed that lower octave.  At the end of the day they aren't a "boutique" manufacturer, but one that wants to sell a "reasonable" quantity of speakers to recoup their investment in Jones' salary, the tooling costs, setting up a factory, and make a little $$ in the process. 

I am concerned a bit about Steve Guttenberg's observation that maybe the new SP10 were on the "bright" side.  Did any of you hearing them think that? Of course set up might be the key. 

I don't know how much stock to put it in Steve Guttenberg's reviews, I rarely come away feeling more informed at the end. To me if's a mystery why he is multiple times more watched than e.g. NRD  

I am sure he has a lot of experience and knowledge but his eccentricity (which is cool and has entertainment value) shows in his reviews - again where NRD is always down to the numbers, measurements and facts, despite the jokes 

@grislybutter

To me it’s a mystery why he is multiple times more watched than e.g. NRD

... which is cool and has entertainment value

Most of not all of the popular YouTube channels put entertainment value first.

That’s the key point - entertainment.

Now if someone wanted to post videos of brain surgery online and they wanted high viewing figures then entertainment would no doubt be deemed far more important than pure surgical skill.

There seems to be something endemically difficult about the human condition that we need to put so much value on entertainment.

Maybe not just ’entertainment’, maybe it’s the personality that attracts us the most?

The feeling of not being isolated.

 

@moonwatcher

I am concerned a bit about Steve Guttenberg’s observation that maybe the new SP10 were on the "bright" side.

 

I noticed that. It’s often the case with reviewers that one subtle criticism tells you more than all of the flattery.

Of course, there’s no doubt that many will prefer a bright balance to a more neutral one.

I know I would have done some 30 years ago.

You’d think as people age that they’d prefer brighter speakers to compensate for the loss of higher frequencies, say above 12kHz, but then again a bright loudspeaker might have a boost between 7-10 kHz where they might be no hearing loss.

Such speakers tend to sound good in the showroom but maybe not so good long term.

 

@ghdprentice

but have you guys listened to speakers over the five decades? The difference in sound quality is just jaw dropping.

 

I’ve been into high performance audio playback for almost 4 decades and I can’t say I’ve noticed any jaw dropping sound quality difference.

For whatever reason I felt that there seemed to be an actual dip in loudspeaker performance during the 1990s and the early 2000s.

Some folks still hold the original Quad ESL and the BBC LS3/5 in the highest regard. If there was any jaw dropping improvements in sound quality I’m sure they’d be very interested.

I’ve yet to hear the highly regarded Revel Salon 2s which always seem to be up there with the very best when it comes to comparisons.

It’s interesting to note that they are now a 14 year old design.

There are a lot of fads I have seen come and go.  Titanium, Beryllium, ceramic,  milled aluminum, diamond, coaxial, perfectimpulse response, etc. and individually none of these IMHO have been so good as to dominate the market.

However, I do think we have better speakers in large part thanks to better tools.  Affordable to free lab quality microphones, measurement software, speaker cabinet and crossover simulators have, with some exceptions, ensured a marketplace of excellent choices.

For the most part the days of speaker crossovers optimized only on the frequency domain are gone.  We now expect excellent designs with good frequency AND impedance AND OFF axis responses.

@cd318 

well, it's all subjective. I really meant "entertaining" as opposed to useful. But I am twisting my own words now. I don't have 20 or 10 minutes watching a stranger for pure entertainment value. I better learn something if I spend the time that I could use for other things.