Speaker Technology over the last 10 years

Active Speakers have become more popular (this design topology has a lot of advantages in terms of lower distortion, better accuracy and eliminating the interface crap shoot issues between finding the right amp to suit a given speaker).

Speaker transducer technology has not really advanced in any significant way, although more is made in China so thinsg keep getting cheaper (if you are prepared to keep your fingers crossed about the quality control - remember speakers are never tested by consumers to confirm that they conform to manufacturer's claimed standards and it is easy to make ONE good sounding speaker t odeliver to a reviewer but harder to mass produce them with consistent performance)

still putting drivers in boxes..you haven't missed much

Speaker technology went down hill after they Stoped making AlniCo Drivers! www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=28617

I read Entrope's response above with a smile. I just rebuilt my 32 year old New Large Advents I bought new in '77 - crossovers and refoam. I was suprised at how good they sound. I hear a little less coherence than on more expensive speakers but, ya know, the thing is, I believe it's mostly the 1/2" mdf cabinets that are really their only weakness. From my experience with the rebuild, I would say nearly all the improvements in speakers are in the cabinetry. I bet those Advents would sound real good with solid, well-braced cabinets. I knew a dealer who said he could tell how good a speaker was by rapping his knuckles on the cabinet and nothing more. I tend to believe think there's something to that.

I am not sure speaker tech has advanced exponentially like sources for instance.I would say the incredible prices are mostly cosmetic like stuff any cabinet maker can duplicate.The quality oldies are still covering 90% of what you can hear,YMMV,Bob