Are modern speakers better than old speakers?

Nothing wrong with old. I come from an extended family of musicians and we had an original JBL Paragon growing up. My father had it for 50 years and it sounded great, especially on the big band, jazz and R & B records he played on. They always evoked a memory of earlier times, something that modern speakers could not recreate. I will always remember their retro sounds. I have a pair of KEF 104s that are 21 years old that recreate vocals better than newer professional grade ATCs I own.

Rega Fan

There are some great modern brands to compare. The Paradigm are wonderful speakers. I have the model above, plus the Atoms, and I highly recommend the brand as best class for price performance. I have built lower cost systems for my two children around those components and I am always amazed at the quality of sound.

I recently auditioned the entire B & W line over the holidays. I was not impressed with the 685, but liked the floorstanding 800 series very much. I believe they were 803s or 802s. They sound "spot on the money" around vocals, guitars and piano. Drums and bass were a little relaxed.

If you like more the British sound, I think ATC 19s and KEF 207s are better sounding speakers. ATCs play the widest range of genres and are very precise. They love power and you really want to match with a neutral solid state system. NAD M3, Roksan and Bryston make great amps here.
KEF was one of the better speakers in the 1980s, but was left for dead in the nineties when their owner passed away and they went through ownership changes that dictated a more mid fi position. The current ownership, based on Hong Kong, is revitalising their hi fi line and I am very impressed with their HT line (3005) and new monitors (especially the 207s).

I recently bought a new Pioneer tv and the clerk auditioned their TAD-designed line of speakers called EX. I was very impressed with the sound I heard of those.