5 Years or More?

One thing I notice about the kind of speakers that tend to be keepers is that the designers seem to think the speakers are worth keeping in their lineup without radical changes to an original design idea - if you get it right the first time no need a new idea every two years. Vandersteen, Maggies, Merlins, Soundlab, etc. their is a pattern - these companies also seem to last and be successful without design revolutions, but gradual evolutionary developments. I wish I had a chance to hear the Apogees with the right amp at some point.

Advents: sixteen (16) years.

Dunlavy's: six (6) years

V.A. Mahlers: six (6) years, but they were in my second system most of the time.

I have a pair of 1959 JBL sinature series 030 drivers in a C38 enclosure. They were my fathers and are 49 years old. 16 years after that I bought my own speakers, New Klipsch Heresys in 1976 for $550- if you wanted grill covers that was another $50. I did without, still have them but don't play them much. Just sneeking in are my current systems. The WAF system has Von Schweickert VR2s about 6-7 years old. I also own Klipsch La Scalas and the C36 JBLs with D-131s for extended range drivers same 075 tweeter circa 1962 both bought by me in 2001-2003.
In my big rig I use JM lab Focal 936 Electras almost exclusively just 5 years old, I built my system around them! I have others including Merlin TSMs.

I have Snell CIV speakers from 1992, replaced a blown mid-range, but have no plans to replace soon. Love the bass too.

I have Vandersteen 5A's. One of the great selling points of this speaker (and perhaps others in the Vandersteen line) is that when an improvement comes along, Vandersteen will install the update to the speaker. Yes, I know that sometimes to do that you have to send the speaker back to the factory, but all in all, it's much more cost effective to do that than to buy into a whole new speaker. Yes...you have to like the Vandersteen signature, but if you have confidence in the house sound, you can continue living on the Vandersteen cutting edge. It makes me laugh when I read the posts that say "I have no intentions of giving them up any time soon", or these speakers are "keepers", etc. We audiophiles are very fickle indeed and sometimes we just wake up one morning and HAVE TO HAVE the new this or that and are sure that it will bring even higher heights of audio into our sound rooms.