Are advances in technology making speakers better?

@drbarney1

@kenjit

It saddens me to hear how cynical you have become. Certainly there are some companies that operate this way. But a much larger proportion are driven by true desire to create better products… or in some cases driven by other companies besting them.

I have worked in the high tech industry for nearly forty years at companies supplying cutting edge components for high end audio and electronic devices… Burr-Brown (leader in DACs and Other high end audio components), Texas Instruments, and Sharp Corporation. I know hundreds of engineers, marketing managers, and executives. There is tremendous pressure to advance… but the prerequisite is performance, period. You just cannot pretty stuff up, false market it and stay in business in the high end.

Most of the electronic devices you own… including the GPS system in your car I have had a hand in bringing to you. The hundreds of thousands of people that have done this are by the greatest margin hard working honest people doing the best for themselves and their companies to bring the very best possible. As you move down into very budget oriented stuff… things change… still a lot of work, but more marketing, less innovation. I have encountered that environment as well.

Technology HAS made speakers better. Today's modest bookshelf speakers are light years ahead of most bookies say of 40 years ago.  But the basic technology used most often (a flapping piece of paper driven by a magnetic motor) hasn't changed. However, as others note, the materials technology has changed a bunch. Neodymium magnets, stiffer but lighter materials, the knowledge of how to properly brace a speaker cabinet to eliminate coloring resonances using computer simulations, and yes, computer simulations that can drastically cut down on the number of prototypes needed to be built so that the designers can get it "right"
the first time.  

For instance, compare any speaker from 1982 that cost about $1200/pair with Andrew Jones' Sourcepoint 10 here in 2022 at $3600.  The relative value, allowing for inflation, is the same. 

But that doesn't mean you have to upgrade every 5 or 10 years. Buy what you can feel comfortable with, but then just enjoy it for at least 15 or even 20 years. 

The increments in sound quality increases are small but over 20 years they can add up. Or at the very least, make quality sound available at prices no one would have dreamed of back in 1982. 

The only reason to change is if you desire something else - a sonic signature change as it were.  If that is the real impetus behind your wanting to "change" then go for it and make yourself happy. Life is short. Listen all you can. 

Many are speaking of changes as if they are advances.  Many changes are not advances or are seen later as not advances.  Changes can be a form of confirmation bias especially for those who devise them but also for unwary punters.  It can take time to verify if a change is an advance.

I think that @moonwatcher has just about said it all, and I agree.

Most of the advances in the last 60 years have been to make speakers more compact rather than to improve sound.  Earlier speakers that were all out assaults on sound quality were gigantic in size.  The advent of stereo made them even more impractical.  Shrinking the size became even more sensible when the transistor made higher powered amps needed for smaller speakers (lower in efficiency) cheaper to produce.  But, you can take the drivers in some of these very old systems and build extremely good systems that can easily rival the best modern systems if you have the money and the space.  I’ve heard a few, but I don’t have that kind of space or money.  One of the was almost five feet wide, 4 feet seep and nine feet tall; one only saves on amp space because one can drive this thing to ear-splitting levels with a couple of watts.

As to The new Mo-fi speaker, which I’ve heard and found very impressive, it is very much old-school in many respects: paper cone,  pleated surround, silk fabric dome for the co-axial tweeter.  The only thing “new” is the 30-year or so practice of using neodymium magnets.  Also, it is very large for a stand-mounted speaker, and this is very much and old school approach to sound quality.