cheapest speaker made in the last 10 year that can beat any speaker made before 1970?

Herding cats is fun!

@realworldaudio and @mahgister well said and many dittos of agreement.  When someone can throw a $2 x 2" speaker on a table and make it sound like some of the great old stuff, they will have something.  For now, I will be happy with my big speaker cabinets and wonderful sound. 

Not possible r even close , you had the Big  infinity irs  speakers, 

Klipsch K horns , Maggi ,sound labs , kLH, Bozak this is just a sample of older technologies that still hold their ground very well in the U.S Europe too had a bunch of classic speakers.

@knotscott you mean no genius of speaker designer on this era?no? 

@mahgister that mean technology no advanced in speaker design , right?