Very interesting thread. Particularly appropriate to me, as only yesterday i visited a dealer who's system was what he felt to be excellent sounding. Yet, and here's the thing, this system was a disappointment to me. Not because it did not have some good gear in it, but because the system was put together with the typical mistakes that someone who thinks they really know what they are doing, yet disregard the very basic things that separate a great sounding system from a mediocre sounding one. For example, no consideration given to cabling, no consideration given to room acoustic treatments, no consideration give to the importance of speaker placement, and so on. One thing i have learned in this hobby over the years, is this, no matter what the listener's experience level is, the dealer always believes he/or she ( not many ladies in this scenario) has more expertise than the customer.
@mikelavigne You are a highly experienced a'phile, why would someone believe that they could improve your system, without a) first listening to it and then b) believe that their knowledge would trump yours??...I don't really understand this attitude from several members who have posted upstream. To these very same members, i would ask this question: Is it possible that in fact someone like Mike L could have a superior sounding system to yours...and not only that, have more experience/knowledge than you?
I have wanted to ask this very same question to numerous dealers in this hobby, iow-- is it possible that the customer who just walked in the door, could in fact teach you something about not only system set up, but also about music itself??
To get back to the subject in the OP. are there speakers today that can compete with today's best? Absolutely, I think some of these speakers from the past have in fact never been bettered in some areas. Take for example, the Quad '57's. How many speakers on the market today can equal their mid-range reproduction, never mind beat them? Another example, the SF Guarneri Homage speakers that I utilize in my system, how many stand mounts can equal these today?? There are a few (maybe a handful that i know of)...but the vast majority of current stand mounts still cannot better them.
There is a point made by RH in TAS that he recently heard the old Hill Plasmatronic speakers (with the ion tweeter), stating that the upper mids to highs were the best reproduction of these frequencies he had ever heard!! RH has heard a lot of speakers....
