Are advances in technology making speakers better?

@larryi

Maybe we are disagree on the word technology. I consider material science and changes in design (dimensions and configurations technology). Not just say changing from a cone based to a “cube” based for instance. Yes, cones with magnets, ribbon, electrostatic… there and not completely new concepts.

The Amati use “paper” cones… but they are in no way the paper cones of the 1950’s, just like the magnets. Sure they choose voicing, but the speed and resolution is technology dependent.

I don't think we disagree.  The technology is important.  I just think the particular sound the designer is shooting for is much more important to the sound.  One can get very close to any particular sound chosen with technology from the past.  With the hyper-detailed sound of some speakers, the past, might mean only a decade or two back, with the kind of sound of the Amati, slightly older technology will do.  As to speed and resolution, there are plenty of older drivers that can achieve this while still sounding warm and relaxed like your Sonus Faber Amati drivers, but the ones I can think of are pretty expensive and much more impractical and certainly cannot be packaged as beautifully as your speaker (e.g.,Jensen field coil M-10 drivers).

That is not to say that the design of such speakers is easy--it takes a lot of knowledge, experience and experimentation to achieve the kind of sound that Sonus Faber achieves.  That design, and correctly employing whatever technology is available, is the main reason these speakers deliver the kind of sound that you and I like.

@moonwatcher you need to listen to a large Advent.

@ghdprentice , I know you are right about high tech workers in general. Loudspeakers are not high tech. Anybody with a table saw can make one. Not necessarily a good one, true.

@mijostyn I did get to hear the large Advent at a small mom and pop stereo store near NC State in the late 1970s or early 1980s. All us poor students lusted after those and the ones from maybe Polk that looked like large coffins. We half expected the grills to open and Count Dracula to come out.

I have a old pair of vintage ADS L520 in my bedroom. When I turn out the lights, I can pretend they are the large Advent... :-)

@grislybutter

I don't have 20 or 10 minutes watching a stranger for pure entertainment value.

I beginning to realise that I don't either.

My watch later list on YouTube is now over 100 videos now!

Couldn't I just have one month to myself?

Oh well, I guess when you sign up for marriage and kids you need to read the small print about the risks of giving up most of your spare time for at least 20 years or so.

I better learn something if I spend the time that I could use for other things.

Great attitude. How I wish they'd have given us something like Robert Lacey's Great Tales from English History books to read when I was at school.

I despise the public education system in the UK because it feels as if only those who can afford private schooling should have the privilege of being taught the history of their own country.

The rest of us got next to nothing.

Despite being a graduate most of my learning has been on an ad hoc basis, in my own time. The same applies to my knowledge about loudspeakers. What I have learnt is that it seems to be one of those subjects where the designer very quickly runs into one compromise or another.

In fact there are probably only a handful of no-holds-barred attempts at designing the perfect loudspeaker.

As @larryi said, "Earlier speakers that were all out assaults on sound quality were gigantic in size."

Well that automatically rules out 99.9% of the loudspeakers built today.

Andrew Jones himself seems to be suggesting as much here in this episode from the Occasional Podcast. It's certainly worth a listen and there's a lot worse you can listen to during the daily commute to work.

https://audio-head.com/mofi-electronics-and-andrew-jones-introduce-the-sourcepoint-10-loudspeaker/amp/