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Loudspeakers have we really made that much progress since the 1930s?

Since I have a slight grasp on the history or loudspeaker design. And what is possible with modern. I do wonder if we have really made that much progress. I have access to some of the most modern transducers and design equipment. I also have  large collection of vintage.  I tend to spend the most time listening to my 1930 Shearer horns. For they do most things a good bit better than even the most advanced loudspeakers available. And I am not the only one to think so I have had a good num of designers retailers etc give them a listen. Sure weak points of the past are audible. These designs were meant to cover frequency ranges at the time. So adding a tweeter moves them up to modern performance. To me the tweeter has shown the most advancement in transducers but not so much the rest. Sure things are smaller but they really do not sound close to the Shearer.  http://www.audioheritage.org/html/profiles/lmco/shearer.htm
128x128johnk
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,849 posts
 
I noticed no one has mentioned the Heil Air Motion transformer; that came out in the 70's I believe, and there were some two way speakers that utilized it. Although I liked the highs that two way produced, the mid-range just wasn't mellow enough.
@orpheus10, if you look back through this thread you will find I mentioned a tweeter made by High Emotion Audio. It has a lot in common with the Air Motion transformer. Its high efficiency and very fast, while also being very smooth and detailed. Essentially its a bent ribbon, pinched in the middle to give it a horn shape. It goes low enough (2KHz) that it can be used in a two-way system.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,322 posts
 
Creating a quality speaker for home use is a problem that has been solved thousands of different ways by many over the years.

Which solutions solves it best is more a matter of opinion than fact.   There are many viable candidates for that using various technologies applied.

So clearly there have been many innovations and different designs and approaches to the problem since the 1930s.   There are more choices than ever not to mention continuous refinements to quality over the years.

So other than there being more larger homes and rooms these days than in the 1930s,   the problem has not gotten much harder to solve, in fact improvements in amplifier technology make some speaker design problems, like size and bulk, easier to solve.

Needless to say it is possible to build a much higher output  high quality speaker today than in 1930.     But who needs that?   Professional applications in large venues do but cost will likely be the barrier there, not the technology availble to build the best and highest output speaker possible.



tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,597 posts
 

I think that we could send people to the moon more safely and comfortably and be able to gather much more useful data now than we could in the 60s. The Apollo missions were more about national pride and developing technology that would help us in the cold war. Priorities have moved on and there’s not much reason to keep going back to the moon.

I’m sure that speakers from the 30s have their appeal, as do Duesenbergs, but today’s speakers are the right solution for the vast majority of people.


inna
7,296 posts
 
Agreed. There is no pride anymore, we are becoming a society of sh-tlovers. Disturbing.
tmare
44 posts
 
The vast majority people do not care the sound quality these days, I think...
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