Say What ? 30 yr. old speakers sound as good as any $11K speaker today...That’s quite a statement.....It’s too early in the day to be drinkin’......
Perhaps it was you who was “drinkin” since you completely misinterpreted my post, presumably due to a failure of reading it entirely. I did not claim that 30-year-old speaker(S) can compete with any $11K speaker manufactured today. I merely implied (quite coherently) that some flagship designs from yesteryear are still competitive with many modern designs when one adjusts for inflation. In fact, some brands have actually regressed in terms of objective performance. For example, some of the Focal and Revel designs of recent years actually measure worse than their predecessors in terms of linearity and distortion.
Having owned over 35 pairs of speakers and having auditioned countless others, both modern and vintage, it’s my experience that most advancement had come in the form of inexpensive speakers generally performing better than in previous decades. But in terms of higher performance, go audition a flagship Spendor, Revel, or JM Lab from the 90s and compare them to their current flagships, and you might just begin to share my sentiment. My main point is that it’s typically fruitless to read into the marketing claims regarding a manufacturer’s allegedly disrupting tech. More often than not, that speaker tech/approach has been done before, sometimes decades earlier, by another manufacturer.
Funny enough, I only returned to this thread because I recently acquired a pair of Borresen X3s. They are indeed a great speaker, especially at their street price (who really pays full retail anymore unless buying from an outlet like Crutchfield???). For the price I paid, I consider them a good value. Are they world-beaters or best of class? Honestly, of that I have doubts. They don’t do subwoofer-like bass extension, so right off the bat they have a shortcoming compared to some of my previous speakers, but overall they are quite enjoyable.
Sound quality aside, in terms of outright build quality and finish, they are superior to much of the competition I’ve encountered in the same price range.
marined....My point exactly...but the fun has just begun,wait till you try to sell them!
The problem with your argument regarding the frequency at which they release new models is that you mentioned completely different price brackets. The C series might be newer than the X series (though I believe that may be incorrect), however they are considerably pricier for like-sized models. From the prices I’ve researched, they have yet to release a series that significantly trespasses on their other like-sized models, nor made any particular series “obsolete.” Thus far, the few pair of X Series speakers I’ve seen on the secondhand market have retained their value better than most brands, especially considering most were bought new for less than MSRP. I was told there is something like a three-month backorder on the X series speakers, so allegedly the demand is high for the time being.
I can sympathize with being bitter over a product’s poor resale value. It sucks when that happens. That’s why these days I tend to buy pre-owned speakers when possible. That’s really the only way to ensure one doesn’t take a bath down the line, even with brands that generally retain high resale value, it’s hard to predict the future of many specific models. I once bought a pre-owned, late-model Mac preamp thinking I’d be able easily flip it for little loss due to Mac’s typically good resale. Turned out that was mistake—I took a big hit on that piece because apparently that model in particular just doesn’t hold its value like other Macs, despite the fact it was/is in their current catalog.
Regarding Raidho specifically, it’s my understanding that many of their speakers were very finicky about placement and gear synergy. Perhaps that was the real driver of their disappointing resale? Just a hypothesis. Or perhaps you paid retail or close to retail for a brand-new pair, when most buyers were getting better deals on their new pairs, and subsequently that was reflected in the resale market values? After all, I find it’s quite common to get as much as 25% off MSRP when buying products in these price ranges, often times without even having to request a discount. Not suggesting you definitely paid full retail, but if you did, that could account for some of the perceived value disparity.
