Speaker Technology over the last 10 years

>does anyone think great strides have been made in crossover technology, especially with the availability of a such a variety of capacitors and resistors.

The passive components don't matter that much.

Inexpensive computers which can make gated measurements to provide anechoic measurements and approach a target transfer function have made a big difference.

Linkwitz also didn't publish _Passive Crossover Networks for Noncoincident Drivers_ until 1978.

There are a few companies using field coil technology again these days.

Some vendors that have been around for awhile have offered evolutionary tweaks to their designs that perhaps offer more refinement.

You can certainly spend more than ever on new speakers these days if you like.

Nothing really revolutionary though that moves what is possible to a new major level that I can think of.

"SOME SAY SPEAKERS MADE IN THE LATE 60's TO MID 70's WERE THE BEST SPEAKERS EVER MADE....SOUNDWISE".... "AlNiCo DRIVERS"

mapman I have field coil drivers from 1928. Crossovers have not made major gains but parts quality has as has computer design for crossovers. This to me is both good and bad makes it easyer for designers but you end up with same old same old sound if you only use programs for design.

Johnk, "Crossovers have not made major gains but parts quality has as has computer design for crossovers."

My argument is that there are less people than ever who actually understand crossovers. Partly because of the programs themselves, but mostly due to the overall decline of science, engineering, and mathematic strength in our society.

As you intimated, computer programs make the work easier, but the end result is that the thinking becomes homogenized around the models. In the best case scenario, folks involved in design use the computer models to learn design patterns, then stand on the shoulders of the work that was programmed into that model, and go beyond it via their own experimentation. Instead, I find most use the programs as a crutch to compensate for their own reluctance to put the required hard work into craft.

Beyond that, as a software engineer myself, I have to say that putting trust into something that is designed and built by humans is a recipe for failure, as the all but a very few computer programs are at least moderately flawed.