@jafant,
"One should be in a position to get 20+ years out of reference speakers.
Much will depend upon the company staying in business and providing both service/parts/drivers."
Yes, this is very important. Unfortunately sometimes even the manufacturer won't keep the required parts in stock forever.
Currently I'm looking to find a bass driver for a friend's KEF floorstanders from 1997 and was told by KEF themselves that my best chance is to look on eBay.
I'm still hoping to find a decent one with dust cap still intact but not with much luck so far. I'm guessing that if they had developed a crossover malfunction that would, in most cases, have been terminal.
So, yeah 20 years seems like a good estimate. Then it can get tricky.
@phusis,
An excellent summing up post!
"One should be in a position to get 20+ years out of reference speakers.
Much will depend upon the company staying in business and providing both service/parts/drivers."
Yes, this is very important. Unfortunately sometimes even the manufacturer won't keep the required parts in stock forever.
Currently I'm looking to find a bass driver for a friend's KEF floorstanders from 1997 and was told by KEF themselves that my best chance is to look on eBay.
I'm still hoping to find a decent one with dust cap still intact but not with much luck so far. I'm guessing that if they had developed a crossover malfunction that would, in most cases, have been terminal.
So, yeah 20 years seems like a good estimate. Then it can get tricky.
@phusis,
An excellent summing up post!