What are the current "speaker trends" in your opinions?

Guess Golden Ears doesn't like the Dutch and Dutch because they are manufactured out of phase :)

(Or at least the ones he never heard at a show were built that way...)

And, how could Dutch and Dutch possibly compete with Sonos...

So cool what is happening with speaker/system designs. Every piece and component optimized for the one right next to it in the chain.

Going to take me a while - for both financial and sensibility reasons - before I would be ready to make the switch. I like tubes and high efficiency speakers.

The Dutch and Dutch 8c's are such a great concept. It's difficult to keep up with the innovative things that are happening in audio design period.

So I guess, in a nutshell, its change that is the new trend - development, implementation and integration of both brand new digital technologies with existing "traditions".

Cool time to be an audiophile!!!

P

@audiokinesis 

Duke, Might as well order some take out, open a few beverages and read War and Peace while you wait for Sir Fullofit to never come to the table with anything of use let alone fact based knowledge for a rebuttal .  

 

It should be room control (DSP). But I believe that is best put in the pre amp not the speaker. This started in the late 80's with TACT and has been slow to catch on. TACT did not do itself any favors. Their manual was awful and the learning curve steep. But once you had it down you had the ultimate control of your system 1 Hz and 0.5 db at a time, phase coherent and ultimate bass management. Unfortunately most people could not figure it out. The industry then reacted by making units  that most people could operate but that were extremely limited in capability. Only Trinnov has a full capability unit that if you are inclined you can talk to it with your laptop and get most of what the TACT can do. Anthem also has a unit at a much lower cost that I am not familiar with. Having used digital system management for over twenty years there is no way I could live without it so I always keep an eye on the market should my TACT 2.2X ever bite the dust. Fortunately it is built like a tank but if it were to go at this time I would go for the Trinnov Amethyst. Many people are turned off by having to convert everything into PCM but the benefits far out weight the negatives. All the management is done at 192/24 48 bit. I have a Benchmark ADC on the output of my phono amp and the turntable still has all it's analog charm intact so much so that most people prefer the turntable to a synchronized hi res digital file. Go figure. 
There is no system that would not benefit from digital system management. If you think your imaging is good now wait till you here it with both speakers having exactly the same frequency response. If you think your sub sound great  wait till you hear it perfectly time aligned with your speakers. 
You only need one digital system management device. You do not need one in the sub and another in the speaker. The best place to put it is in the preamp which historically is the control unit of the system.
Little wireless speakers like Sonos benefit from DSP to make them sound more natural and they are great for back ground music but they are mid fi. Personally, I do not stream. I have a huge digital collection and playlists for every occasion. For new music I scan HD tracks and Amazon you can listen to files at either site. Recordings made before 1980 I prefer vinyl. 
Everything else about speakers has not changed much. I do not think there is a specific trend other than there are more manufacturers than ever making pretty much the same thing with intriguing marketing tacked on to make you think you are getting something special. 

The trend in speakers in everything that was old is now new again. Trend is in vintage speaker designs. I'm a fan!

I visited most of the rooms at AXPONA this year and I would answer that there is no trend. There were line arrays, wide baffles, open baffles, side firing woofers with narrow baffles, you name it. 
I agree that the "vintage thing" is making a comeback but I am biased as I own Devore O/93's and the Volti room sounded so good as did the Audio Note room. 
I wonder about the aluminum cabinet Magico/YG Acoustic trend; first, two brands don't make for much of a trend and it seems to me that as many people find them dark/boring as find them satisfying. I spent a lot of time in front of a pair at Magico's while talking to Steve Dobbins and A.J. Van den Hul and for the price asked I don't hear the appeal. IMO there is a large segment of well-heeled audio enthusiasts who think high-tech equals better loudspeaker sound reproduction that is the audio equivalent of "looking for love in all the wrong places". 
That said, I loved the sound of Vivid Audio Giya's so what do I know?
Another questionable trend (to me) is ribbon tweeters. They seem to be fashionable now but I lived with them for almost ten years in Acoustic Zen Adagios and they were "meh". Good but not great. They are a cheap trick imho. Give me a SEAS dome any day. 
There is no arguing that like integrated amps, we will be seeing more and more active speakers with DSP. I see this as a niche product that will likely appeal to younger audio enthusiasts (which is a good thing). I may be proven wrong, but there is a mental and philosophical disconnect between an analogue front end and a digitally corrected loudspeaker. But then again, every time I see someone asking about a Sweet Vinyl Sugarcube  or Mike Fremer sharing digital needle drops I scratch my head, so again, what do I know?