Are modern speakers better than old speakers?

I am a Merlin speaker fan. Now I haven't personally auditioned speaker's produced 15-20 years ago by them, but I'm going to bet from reading forum enteries that my modern units are substantially improved. BTW, I use these for 2 channel only.

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.

I am in the same predicament you are in, I own Mordaunt Short Festival Series 2 from the early 80's that seem to sound really good for the most part. What I am wondering though is if, because these are the only speakers I have had in my place with my stereo, then I might be limiting the sound and not knowing it. However, I did take them in recently to do a direct comparison with some Quad 12L2's and Monitor Audio Silver 7i's and my old Mordaunts really held their own. I think the Monitor Audios sounded slightly better, but the Mordaunts have one 8" driver and it seemed to have better bass than both the others.

I still can't help but wonder how my Mordaunts would compare in my listening environment at home with a comparison to Paradigm Studio 20 V.4's, B&W 685 or 705's, or some others. I think there is something to be said for improved technology and better ways to measure the sound from speakers, such as Paradigm's government-funded audio labs, so I am curious too.

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.

Shiprepair, hopefully my comment on B&W will stay within the context of the OP. One audio buddy owned the original 801, then the Series III for a number of years. A few years ago he replaced those with the then-current 802N. As an outsider and therefore more objective listener, I found the 802N a great improvement over the older 801. It is much better balanced top to bottom, offers more detail without harshness or edge, and images better.

He recently considered the 802D but did not find enough improvement to justify the $12K price.

Regarding the original question, I'd say the answer is yes and no. Certainly several models of individual speakers have improved over the years. But are all new speakers today better than their inflation-adjusted price competitors from 20 years ago? I don't think so. Many older models can offer satisfying listening if appropriately restored (foam surrounds replaced, old crossover caps upgraded, etc.).