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Your Side by Side Experience With Best Vintage vs Newer Expensive Hi Tech Speakers

Has anyone here ever done a side by side comparison between Tannoy Autograph, Bozak Concert Hall Grand, EV Patrician, Jensen Imperial Triaxial, Goodmans, Stentorian, Western Electric, Altec A4, Jbl Everest/Hartsfield/Summit/Paragon/4435, Tannoy Westminsters, Klipschorns vs the Hundreds of Thousand even Million Dollar speakers of today like Totems, Sonus Farber, BW, Cabasse, Wilsons, Dmt, Infinity, Polk ...etc
vinny55
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

Hi phusis

"It seems that neither era will come to a fuller fruition, and hence an overall advance to truly speak of, unless the hallmarks of each are combined - that is, for physics to be accommodated while technology joins along."

BINGO!

This is why I am excited. It's also why I'm back promoting more again. The latest paradigm is here and has been here for some time. It's just that HEA is having a hard time turning the corner. Technology makes things simpler not more complicated. What we are seeing right now in real time is exactly what you described. There are a few learning curves to get through because HEA didn't know or didn't care to know, but that's all over. Every day now there are folks moving toward a simpler superior performance. But, it's so simple many are having a hard time making the jump, it's more of a drag them to the water.

Here's the good news though. There's no turning back. Folks can kick and scream all they want but the rate of people converting is picking up speed. I have people emailing me every day about converting their systems over. It's why I'm here speaking on this forum. 10 years ago HEA audiophiles were not ready to concede that the over built components and speakers failed to deliver the basic fundamentals of playback. Many, I'm sure, hate the idea that I'm even here. And that would all be the end of it, if not for the fact that hobbyist are turning away from the HEA paradigm in groves.

I'll say it again for folks to read "all recordings have a different recorded code and that requires a variable playback system to play all those codes". There is absolutely no way around this. We can buy as many systems as we want and play the Plug & Play game all we want, but in order to playback recordings in that fashion it would require hundreds of systems per listener. Some how this "one sound" system approach got into the main HEA brain, but this concept doesn't work. It's an never ending chase, and not one soul on this planet has ever achieved a one sound system that plays all recordings. I don't care who you are or how much money thrown or how much someone lies, recordings are codes, and they are all different codes. Not so much good and bad, but different. The component chase will never work, and has never worked. All these listeners are doing is listening to the same recordings with different outcomes. And no matter how many outcomes there are, it's still at best only going to serve a few recordings with any kind of accuracy.

There's a whole other chapter to this hobby and HEA is having a very tough time getting their heads around it.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
13,185 posts
 
maybe it exists but a seperate thread to discuss tuning might be in order...
j_stereo
130 posts
 
Since this is all opinion anyway, I have not done direct comparison of the particular speakers and manufacturers you listed. I enjoy listening to the vintage speakers and I still have old Klipsch, JBL, etc. I also enjoy listening to more modern speakers, so I also have B&W, Magnepan, etc. It seems to me that the vintage speakers, when designed, may have focused on different attributes than the modern speakers.  Back in the day, the major concerns seemed to be reducing distortion, creating large amounts of bass, and clear high frequencies, etc. Today it seems to have shifted to transparency, imaging, etc. This may just be my perception, but this is what it looks like when comparing old vs. new product literature, and that's what it sounds like also. The old speakers I have sound good to me, but they may not have the transparency or resolution of the modern speakers.
gdnrbob
4,508 posts
 
@j_stereo ,
You make some good points. I remember hifi mags in the 70-80's were always focused on distortion figures, and that high fidelity meant reproducing sound without artifacts or coloration of the signal.
B
johnk's avatar
johnk
1,976 posts
 
I work with the most modern of transducer I design loudspeakers have been doing so for over 25 years. I sort out designs for other manufacturers as well as design transducers. Many products on the market have a bit of me in them. I also collect and restore vintage. I became interested in vintage designs as my knowledge of loudspeaker design grew and I read researched much of what the talented designers of the past wrote or created again much of this is still in use in audiophile products. When I started collecting vintage designs I looked for the best of what the past offered never expecting much beyond that it was cool and interesting expecting that it could never be a equal to my audiophile systems. But I found the opposite many of the best loudspeaker designs of the past were better or equal to modern offering and some with just  a few modern upgrades are SOTA today. Some offer levels of performance unavailable to audiophiles buying only new designs. Sure if wanting a bookshelf sized loudspeaker you may not find what you like in vintage but if you can handle 12-15 inch woofers than give it a try buy right and if you dont like you can break even or even profit on resale. Still its not all vintage is great its some vintage is and honestly most all will need a few modern updates if expecting SOTA.

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