Are advances in technology making speakers better?

@mijostyn wrote:

The big theater systems were never intended for home use and in home environments they SHOUTED at you.

Be specific, which of them in particular are you referring to? My own EV pro cinema speakers are placed ~11ft. from the listening position, and they don’t in the least shout at me. If anything going with the bigger, large format MF/HF horn from a smaller ditto made them even more relaxed sounding, and yet fuller and more visceral. Additionally I’ve heard big JBL and Vitavox theater systems, among others, in domestic settings that weren’t at all shouty, as you put it, but I guess to some presence of presentation (as opposed to placid ’laid-back’) equates into "shouty." No, big theater systems weren’t intended for home use, but that’s not necessarily to say they can’t be successfully integrated in a home environment.

Certainly, they grabbed your attention. It is the speaker that does not grab your attention that requires more listening.

I’ve heard enough speakers through the years to know exactly when they have my attention for the very right reasons. Implying that people who like big theater segment speakers are just in for a fun, empty calorie, adolescent thrill ride is, how should one put it, a less informed stance.

Interestingly, with modern digital signal processing it might be possible to make some of those old EVs and Altecs sound passible. Did he mention digital? Shoot the bastard!

No extra processing needed for my actively configured EV’s via the DSP, other than basic filter values, gain structure, a few HF-notches and a peak suppression. Delay settings are vital, obviously.

Most who’re into high efficiency speakers, not least of the vintage kind, seem to dig passively configured setups with low wattage tube amps, oftentimes with an analogue source. Myself I use a digital source exclusively (HDD-based, no less), active config. via DSP and a differentiated SS amp approach with lower wattage class A (30W), class A/B (>1kW) and class TD (>1kW). Not least I use high eff. subs, which seem to be a rarity here.

@phusis , by all means enjoy your EVs. 

phusis , by all means enjoy your EVs.

@mijostyn I am assuming that you do not abide legacy speakers from a 1/2 century back as being within the spirit of the thread with “Advances in technology” in the title?
 

@holmz wrote:

@mijostyn I am assuming that you do not abide legacy speakers from a 1/2 century back as being within the spirit of the thread with “Advances in technology” in the title?

To some the question mark in the thread title is less of a factor..

@holmz , the technology was the same a century ago but speakers had different requirements. Given the state of amplifier development, efficiency was a very important issue if you wanted to fill a whole theater with sound. Now we have CAD tech to help us design loudspeakers. Back then it was slide rules. I appreciate old loudspeakers for what they are, speakers designed with different priorities. As a group they tend to be very efficient and very colored which phusis obviously likes. Coloration in the older speakers interferes with the generation of a decent image. phusis will now tell you that his speakers image fine. They do not because they can't. It is like asking a bus to fly. Buses and airplanes are transportation but have vastly different capabilities. Yes, I have listened to a bunch of ancient loudspeakers from Altec, EV and JBL. I like the old Bozaks the best:-)