Speakers to hang on to for LIFE


After 9 years with my Proac Response 3s, I recently decided to change speakers. As you can tell, I'm not an upgrade fever patient. I want something I can live with for years & I think the best advice I'm gonna get will be from those who have & are still living with their speakers for an extended period of time. Please tell me why too. Thanks.Bob.
ryllau
It is interesting to read everyone posts/opinions. I really don't think speaker design has really changed much - materials on the cones, maybe, but they are basically put together in the same way. It still is an art to design a speaker properly. All of the acoustic measurements you take will not work well in the real world and this is where most of our listening is done. Many designers use special chambers/rooms for their work and this may not equate well with the real world.

We went for simple and elegant - Royd Doublets - we definitely will keep them.
I bought my Martin Logan Sequels in 1987. At the time, I auditioned lots of very high quality loudspeakers including Kef 104/2, which I also liked very much, and Magnepans.

Here it is - 2002 and I still have them!! Of course they've been driven with high quality equipment, and I've taken wonderful care of them. I've had to replace the panels about 5 years ago, but other than that, they remain PERFECT! The sound still amazes me and I wouldn't trade them for anything!!!
I'm sure that Ryllau has long since made his decision with or with out help from this clever thread. I have had the same Thiel CS-2's for 14 years. I always wanted the 3 series but my old room couldn't accomodate most of the improvements they offered so I couldn't justify the expense. I have recently moved and now have a room that can handle a bigger system. With that said I can't help but wonder if it's the smaller, lesser speakers that remain in our possesion longest. After all, there's always that bed room, den or what have you that could benefit from a nice little unfussy system. Or perhaps a friend or relative that could use a temporary (long term?) loan that you could accomodate with out too much risk?
Have had Legacy Focus for about 8 years. I listen to speakers in every audio shop I go into and have yet to find those that make me want to change again. These have it all from low lows to high highs and the mid range is outstanding. I used to swap speakers every year or two until I purchased these. My only adverse comment is I found since they are 4 ohm speakers with 7 drivers they do need lots of power to drive them correctly which is generally contrary to what Legacy Audio says. I have a Krell KAV 1500 powering them now ----a good match.
Infinity IRS Betas. They need careful matching with big tube amps on the planars and kilowatt solid state amps on the woofers (IMHO), lots of room, and patience to get set up just right, but when you do, WOW!