as i think about this, modern technology as it applies to speakers is mostly limited to new materials used for transducers... makes for strong and light and cheap (or some better combo of the 3)...
-- so this capability should make transducers more accurate, more damped (less ringing), faster to move, faster to stop, etc etc - whatever the speaker designer is shooting for in measuring and voicing his product
-- then, mass production of these more modern, economic materials allows for better sound to ’trickle down’ into less expensive speakers...
-- not sure how much this affects really top end speakers, as great materials were available in the 80’s 90’s etc... they were just expensive to make and implement back then - now much of that technology and capability has matured and become more commonplace
to me it is still mostly about the voicing and selective choice of various sympathetic resonances (call it distortion if you want, that isn’t offensive at all, if it makes the music sound more real and more beautiful) -- i do believe that even the proper recording, handling, storage and reproduction of music has a subtle ’bleaching/leaning/mechanizing’ effect, and so playback equipment that restores more richness and humanity to the sound is doing the end result a most positive service
-- so this capability should make transducers more accurate, more damped (less ringing), faster to move, faster to stop, etc etc - whatever the speaker designer is shooting for in measuring and voicing his product
-- then, mass production of these more modern, economic materials allows for better sound to ’trickle down’ into less expensive speakers...
-- not sure how much this affects really top end speakers, as great materials were available in the 80’s 90’s etc... they were just expensive to make and implement back then - now much of that technology and capability has matured and become more commonplace
to me it is still mostly about the voicing and selective choice of various sympathetic resonances (call it distortion if you want, that isn’t offensive at all, if it makes the music sound more real and more beautiful) -- i do believe that even the proper recording, handling, storage and reproduction of music has a subtle ’bleaching/leaning/mechanizing’ effect, and so playback equipment that restores more richness and humanity to the sound is doing the end result a most positive service