Speakers to hang on to for LIFE

altec stonehenge III say no more!

Dahlquist DQ 30i. Had them for about 15 years and to my ear still wonderfull. There are probably better speakers but price does make some difference. It is nearly impossible to find DQ30's but DQ 20's are readily available (as are the most famous DQ 10's) for around $400. In fact I bought some DQ 20's recently to put in a secondary small room. Great value.

I've had PSB Stratus Golds since 1996 or 97, and I have yet to hear anything that I've wanted to replace them with. (I use a SONY DVD-S7700 (as a transport only) input to a SONY TAE-E9000ES pre/pro (w/ver. 2.01 upgrade) through an ARAGON 8008BB). I wanted that lowest octave (20 - 40 Hz), so I added a VELODYNE HGS-15, but the Golds bass is quite good (-1 db @ 35 Hz) without augmentation.
For 22 years before that I had ESS AMT-1Bs (uprgaded to 1Ds later), but I felt they were too bright and not smooth enough.

For about 30 years, I've had a pair of Dynaco A-25 speakers which I bought new in 1972 or 1973. They have smooth, clean, neutral sound, and one can listen to them for long periods without fatigue. They're best for music played at moderate volumes. They don't have the power-handling capacity to play rock really loud. I have no illusions that they are the ultimate audiophile speaker; there are doubtless many people on this forum who have better speakers. For small-combo jazz, classical chamber music, or the like, however, they do just fine. Put it this way -- I've been listening to all kinds of music on them for 30 years, I could afford to replace them, but I'm in no hurry to do so.

I've owned a pair of Aerial Acoustic 10T's in Santos Rosewood finish for about 18 months now. The 10T is a very nice looking full range speaker with excellent fit'n finish. The sonics are very good but you really need an amp with about 250 wpc or more to really make them sing.

To me, these are speakers to keep. No matter what else may come along, there should always be a place for these in my house.