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
@johnk


I agree that nothing is perfect but in the context of this thread - horns have long been surpassed by the modern era of conventional drivers (starting in the 70’s) which have performance up to -70dB of THD - a massive 30dB less distortion than horns.

30dB less distortion - now that is incredible progress!
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johnk (OP) ..."He also was marketing product so had a bit of bias towards his own work."...
@Shadorne, 

I am glad you enjoy your modern speakers with 30 do less distortion.  The last thing we need is anyone else driving up the cost of "inferior" vintage gear.  
@salectric


No wish from me to rain on anyone’s parade. Horns can and do sound fantastic - it is all about the quality of drivers and the design - 2nd harmonic changes the timbre (more euphonic) but it is not bad sounding like odd harmonics. Magico’s most expensive design is a horn. It is just that this thread says claims "not much progress" since 1930’s. So I was just trying to show how there has been progress.