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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
inna
7,296 posts
 
John, I think you stress the emotional component, which in my mind is also the most important. I heard a few fine instruments that didn't give that no matter who played them, and I heard other instruments that sounded a lot like the vintage design speakers you are talking about. And I heard two that got everything right. Custom acoustic guitars. I can't really play a guitar but I can strike a few accords. Wow, that was quite a sound. The other even much better guitar was played by Paco de Lucia - custom Conde Hermanos.
Something is being lost in modern sound reproduction, I think, and it cannot be compensated by anything.
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johnk OP
1,975 posts
 
kosst_amojan -Zonda is a evolution of whats considered the 1st sports car 1914 Vauxhall.  Zonda did not create the idea of a sporting car it evolved its design based on the many many sports cars before it. What are Zondas original  advancements to automobile  tech? Its just near the pinnacle of a very advanced vintage technology.
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johnk OP
1,975 posts
 
inna we do rely  much on computers for design might be why so much made today seems to not be-able to give soul or life to music and that we keep mining the past a time when humans designed for ideas horn speakers, tubes, LPs, tape all still being made why if modern tech is so advanced? are we looking for something that is not available otherwise?    If I sim loudspeaker designs I can hear how wrong some of the sims can be in reality. I trust what  I am hearing thus make empirical changes to design to get what I want out of it not what works well within the confines of a limited software program.  Might be others put more trust into the computer end and less on the human and with art like music that might be a issue. After all you are trying to trick human senses into hearing actual music,sound-stage and feeling any emotions the music generates. 
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inna
7,296 posts
 
John, I think the more people rely on computers the more they will become like computers. And I don't want to see it let alone participate.
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