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Speaker Longevity

Can someone give me some advice on how speakers wear? I have a 10 year old pair of Vienna Acoustic Beethoven's. I have never turned them up and l don't listen to rock, I basically listen to Solo vocal, Acoustic, Sacred Vocal, and Chamber. I have been running them through an all tube system by Quicksilver Audio, with a Vandersteen sub.. Do they degrade over time? Or, do speakers either work or not work?
Thanks, I would really appreciate some knowledgeable input.
rickpur
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,178 posts
 
Has the sound degraded? In what way!

If it has, the speakers may just be the messenger and the problem could be elsewhere (if there is one).

If sound has degraded, I'd suspect a tube or tubes in the other gear to be the most likely culprit. ?
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pinkus
144 posts
 
I am sure the speakers have degraded over 10 years, but the question is have your ears degraded even more during that period ?

I would quit worrying about it and enjoy the speakers. Popular wisdom (?) on the net has it that speakers can last up to 30 years without significant deterioration.
stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
I am equally sure that they haven't. Why would you think they would? I just sold my newest pair of speakers, they were 11 years old. The ones I listen to most are 18 years old. Barring damage or the kind of things Elizabeth describes speakers last a long time. It takes many speakers a considerable length of time to sound their best. I would bet that a significant percentage of the speakers for sale on Agon aren't even fully broken in.
cmalak
681 posts
 
Rickpur...are you asking out of curiousity or are you experiencing a degradation in the sonics from your system? If you are running an all-tube system and things have been getting gradually worse, or even if they suddenly got worse, I would look at your tube amps and make sure you don't have a bad tube as Mapman suggested. Do you know how many hours you have logged on your power output tubes, the input and driver tubes, etc...?
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