Speakers to hang on to for LIFE

For me, it's the Merlin VSM-MX two way floor standing monitors. They meet or exceed all my measures of a great speaker. In my room they totally disappear, leaving only the music. The imaging is first rate. The highs are as smooth as silk, never fatiguing. The bass is very articulate down to the mid 30's. And most of all, the emotion of the music is conveyed. It's easy to sink into the emotion of the music. When you get "goose bumps" listening to female vocals you know something is very right. The Merlins will be with me for a long time.

In August '06 I mentioned the Merlin VSM-MX, well they must be keepers and I replaced them with the VSM-MXe lead free version, which is a signficant improvement. I agree with sburton's comments 100%. If they were twice the size with three times the number of drives even more people would try'em -- they look to simple, to small to be SOTA, well, all I can say is listen to them if you can. Great things come with this "small" package. I'm keeping these things till the break or I do.

Sunlight Engineering SE308 concentrics 18in drivers with 500hz compresion horn in center of woofer 104db 50lbs of alnico mag driver can be rebuilt but as is should last 50 + years.Can be used in extreme nearfield or use in a large hall they can easly produce massive SPL off little power.Smooth detailed sound,massive dynamic range, image is near real, tone to die for, makes you feel the emotion in music disapear when on even in extreme nearfield and they are huge.Wish I could keep for life was going to say from my cold dead hands but as with all things have to sell........Maybe some lucky soul will pick these up and keep for life I have owned built designed,demoed beta tested so many loudspeakers these are truly something special.As I have looked in this post for years now I see many loudspeakers suggested that could never last a life time you would need replacement drivers,rebuild surrounds, electric parts, cabinets are built of MDF which doesnt age well.Will such be availble in the future for these models?Will it even be worthwill to repair said drivers? With the se308 this isnt a problem just replace cone if damaged if cone cracks or gets holed no big deal for owner to repair cabinets so over built should last more than a lifetime finish is french polish which will look better as it ages will the polycoats on all these other sugestions stay the same? or will it yellow checker flake off expoing cheap veneers and MDF.So for a loudspeaker to last a lifetime it needs to be built to and most are only designed for 15 years use.

At the moment a pair of Oris 150's which do everything my ears like. Although I did say that about my Linn Isobariks back in the day (circa 1850)lol. Then Horns cometh, and then Horns stayeth.
Hey Johnk- the SE308 look great.

I'm partial to the Fried lineup. I have a pair of Model C satellites mounted on a pair of Model O subwoofers and I also have a pair of Monitor 7s and a pair of Model Qs 9currently not working). From what I've read I wouldn't mind acquiring a pair of C3/Ls but I guess they're as scarce as hens' teeth. Most people admire Fried transmission line speakers (such as my Model Os) because of their superior bass reproduction but even more I appreciate their ability to make a piano recording sound pretty much like a real piano. (They're not quite there.)