Speakers 10 years old or older that can compete with todays best,

@ghdprentice You ask why Linn went with the digital processing at the turntable.

I would say they did it because they probably believed it would sound better, and certainly on paper, this makes some sense. Now here’s the thing, if your reference for great sound quality is a DSD file or a system that really has flaws that you cannot recognize, due to your inexperience with what is possible, then I think your understanding of what is great SQ from a system will be based on that experience.
One of the things that I think a lot of folks get confused with, here and on other a’’phile sites,is what level of SQ the member is using as a reference? To that, their ability to delineate what they hear, or do not hear, seems to vary greatly.

At this point in time, I have to say that I think that Linn and their dealers ( this also applies to a number of other manufacturers and dealers as well, not just Linn) are somewhat unaware of what the top of the heap SQ sounds like from a super high end system. As such, their belief in what constitutes SOTA is in fact far off base.

I have a pair of Albert Von Schweikert's Vortex Screens that I bought directly from Von Schweikert (who was the nicest person) in 1991. They still sound amazing. They were a great deal in 1991 and haven't degraded at all.

I bought my 3.6 Maggies about 18 years ago and could not be more satisfied.  That said, I went through a couple of amps and pre amps to get the right power as well as moving to a tube pre amp.  What made them really bloom was the addition of Mye stands and treating the room.  It was a busy 3 years, but the last 15 have been a joy of focusing on the music as my only additions have been a dac and a streamer.  Great sound and contentment are a good thing.

kennymacc

Yes. Thiel Audio.

Happy Listening!

@daveyf , @phusis 

I have been using digital signal processing for 25 years. For the last two years I have been running my phono stage into an ADC, digitizing the signal into 192/24. RIAA correction is applied digitally without any distortion or phase shift. I can also turn any record into a digital file.

I can AB pure analog to Digital at any time and there is no one individual that has prefered the analog version. My system is also optimized for digital use and does not represent the finest of analog system, but I do use ESLs with subwoofers and fine cartridges like the MSL Sig Platinum, Lyra Atlas SL and Ortofon MC Diamond. 

If you know what you are doing and have the right equipment, the benefits of digital signal processing far outweigh any disadvantages. It is also true that two channel processors have not really come into their own until recently. Digital volume has always been a problem because as you drop the volume from 0 dBFS you lose bits. The newest 64 bit floating point processors still lose bits but they start out with so many that resolution never drops below 192/24. Volume is no longer an issue.