Speakers to hang on to for LIFE


After 9 years with my Proac Response 3s, I recently decided to change speakers. As you can tell, I'm not an upgrade fever patient. I want something I can live with for years & I think the best advice I'm gonna get will be from those who have & are still living with their speakers for an extended period of time. Please tell me why too. Thanks.Bob.
ryllau
There continues to be technical advancement in speaker design that improves sound quality. You will exclude newer designs offering better performance from consideration if you only hear from people who have had their speakers a long time. You might want to solicit opinions on speaker brands that have consistently been top performers and see what people think of their newer products. I owned a pair of ADS speakers for 13 years, replaced them with a pair of Dynaudio Confidence 3s 1 1/2 years ago and I'm totally satisfied with their performance.
There are many speakers out there that I probably would have held onto but none as happily as Quad ESL 63s. The only thing I've changed in 15 years with them was to obtain a crosby modified pair about 8 years ago. I have not heard the new versions and the Quads as do all speakers have certain limitations. That said, I'd buy another pair if I were looking today.
Both B&W N802 and Revel Studio are great speakers but
I choose the N802 because:

1) The N802 sound slightly more natural and better soung stage than Revel studio.
2) I like the design and craftsmanship of N802.
Well, I have had a pair of M&K Satellite 1a's and Volkswoofer since 1980, and still use them in the bedroom. They aren't particularly great at anything (other than being small :-)), but they've served me through two stints at college, several career changes, and three different cities. In that time, they've sounded from wonderful to awful, depending on my ability to set them up, but through it all they've remained in use. I bought a pair of ProAc 2.5's for the living room a while back, but couldn't find it inside of me to part with these dear friends. At some point, I decided that I've invested so much energy over the years in schlepping them around, setting them up, tweaking them, cursing them, and enjoying their music that I'd feel too great a loss to ever get rid of them. So when the midranges finally went on them last year, I sent them down to M&K for repairs rather than ditch them. Not exactly audiophile, but they do qualify as speakers for life :-).

Cheers,
Ken
Thank you folks. You have made me so happy. I now know I'm not a weirdo for not switching speakers every 6 months.
(That's the feeling you get if you read Audiogon a lot.)
It's no coincidence that most of the speakers you hang onto
are made by mfrs who are still churning out good products today (B&W, ProAc, Dunlavy...). Let's hear more please.