Vintage vs New

oldhvymec, you aught to know by now I don't pull punches. Horrible? In the universe of horrible things my opinion of Tekton loudspeakers is way down the list. I would rather think most people could care less. They just think I am politically inept and they would be right.

I think the real question here is whether or not speakers which were reference quality when they were new 20 to 30 years ago have similar sound quality to reference speakers of today. The cost difference between these two options can be a factor of 10 or more.

I own a pair of Thiel CS6 speakers, a Krell KRC-2 pre, and Krell KSA 300S amp. I went to AXPONA in 2017 and had a chance to listen to a lot of systems that cost in the high five figures to well over 6 figures, with one being over a million dollars. I came away with the observation that my system holds up very well to any system under $100k. I did hear some amazing speakers that were $70K+ (MBL 101 X-Treme, large YG, big Vandersteens, etc.) but most of the systems didn't sound as good as mine in general. They might have had one characteristic that stood out but overall they didn't strike me as something I had to own.

I came away from this experience believing that sound quality hasn't improved by leaps and bounds over the last 25 years unless you get into the price stratosphere. The corollary to this is that high end used speakers are a real bargain. Reviewers drooled over the top models from B&W, Revel, Wilson, and Thiel a couple decades ago. However, this industry depends on the perception that sound quality is always improving so that we stay on the upgrade treadmill. Certainly there has been some improvement but the cost of this improvement is very high.

True vintage speakers will kill any new model but you have to go way back to prior to 1965 and buy the impossibly large full range systems of that era and when you do you will not want to listen to anything else.

True vintage wine will kill anything new but you have to go way back to prior to 1965 and buy the impossibly expensive French wine of that era and when you do you will not want to drink anything else.

FIFY.