Buying a 10 years old loudspeaker

Clavil,

Many speakers can be easily damaged by being overdriven - and it does not always result in catastrophic failure but could mean you have a tweeter that sounds like there is "sand" in it - some have been blown up and may have been repaired incorrectly.

Provided the previous owner was careful then you should be ok. 10 years is roughly half its useful life (they can and do last much longer than 20 years). Eventually dings and scratches make the cabinet unacceptable. When you have a failure it may make it more difficult to find parts if you have an old model- so choose something popular or a speaker for which parts are still being made or a speaker that is still made (so drivers are available)! Avoid manufacturers with dozens of models and new designs with different drivers every two years...I mean you have to ask yourself why they change designs all the time or why last years model was so bad that it is now replaced with a super amazing incredibly 10x better model. (These speakers are more like fashionable clothing - since everything is outsourced - they change designs not because they need to - but because they depend on new models for sales)

Despite every new model that comes out being the new "cat's whiskers" the reality is that careful selection of an older classic speaker can get you tremendous sound for much better value - in many cases it can get you better sound than the current "hyped" model which is soon to be yesterdays experiment.

Just like with 10 year old cars, you have to take it on a case by case basis. One owner is a good sign. There are forty year old speakers that have been in the same room their entire lives and three year old units that have shipped cross country 4 times already.
The best advice above is to consider the seller as a strong indicator of what you are buying.

What are you looking at?

My JSE's are from 1986 and still perform flawlessly, I think if the tweets aren't damaged and the surrounds are OK, you are fine buying old speakers.

Replacement drivers are my only worry when I buy old speakers.

My speakers are 16 years old, and I know they will need some amount of repair some day...but the parts are there, so I don't worry about it.

Dave

Dave is right. Parts are key, considering many higher end designs (especially over the last 10-15 years) were designed with proprietary drivers. If these companies fail accessing the oem parts is a crap shoot at best.