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are 4000$ /pr speakers today better than $4000/pr speakers from mid to late 1990's?

or 5k or 2k or 10k??
back then i was in love with:
thiel cs3.6,, cs 2 2s, 7s and even owned a pair of 1.6swilson audio tiny tots and watt puppiesapogee grandsb&w matrix 802's and 801'sb&w silver signatures - but for some things not everything
so lets say you could get 801's for $5500/pr back then, is a $5000/pr b&w today as good as the 801's then?
thanks.
ps - i do know that now my ears are probably not as good as they were when i was younger.

sgrue
erik_squires
16,013 posts
 
In general, speakers are going to be a lot different.

The tonal balance is different, the 2.4 kHz drop is going to be absent, and the ability to consistently find outstanding tweeter performance for cheap is a lot better.  Fast tweeters with limited energy storage flat past 20 kHz are now the norm.
ebm
9,311 posts
 
YES.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,102 posts
 
The answer is easy. It depends. 
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
The roughly $4k Moabs I just bought are way better than the $16k speakers from the 90's they replaced. Not even close.

Bear in mind the Tekton MTM speakers are exceptional value. But I would be shocked if even average $4k speakers today aren't much better than the best from back then. You are after all talking 30 years. It would be incredible if they haven't gotten a lot better.
yogiboy's avatar
yogiboy
5,641 posts
 
 Inflation!
The U.S. dollar experienced an average inflation rate of 2.09% per year during this period, causing the real value of a dollar to decrease. In other words, $4,000 in 2000 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $6,045.99 in 2020, a difference of $2,045.99 over 20 years. The 2000 inflation rate was 3.36%.
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