Speaker types- your preference and your journey?

The goal of my speaker journey over the last 47 years - keeping my cats and their claws away from my speakers.  Very often, speakers would be placed on top of bookcases.  It's not like the more athletic of my pets didn't try to get at them.   

For the speakers in my main system -

1. 1979 - 1988   EPI 100 - the typical 70's & 80's large bookshelf speaker.  Paired with a Pioneer 636 receiver.  Retired before I realized it.   
2. 1988 - 1991   Boston Acoustic 840 - a floor stander.  Gift from the then wife, when I wanted the Klipsch Heresy.  Never liked them.  Separation and divorce soon followed, but not because of the speakers.  They got left behind, along with the Pioneer.  
3. 1991 - 1995   KEF Q55 - back to large bookshelf speaker.  Grew tired of them and the whole Uni-Q thing.  Into Adcom separates as part of my liberation system.  
4. 1995 - 1999   EPOS 11 - smaller bookshelf.  Nice speakers.  
5. 1999 - 2007   Acoustic Research 302 - large bookshelf speaker/ floor stander.  Incredible liquidation deal from Accessories4less.  Tube amps led the way.  
6. 2007 - 2015   Opera Platea - floor stander.  Nice speaker, got bored.  
7. 2015 - 2026   Zu Audio Dirty Weekender - floor stander.  Still love the sound from these speakers.  Still using the same tube amps.  

Won't even get into the speaker choices for my second system.  All bookshelf speakers for that system.   Just ordered the Klipsch Rebellion to avenge Christmas 1988.

Rich 

I haven’t purchased any speakers since lucking into a second-hand pair of Salk Veracity HT2-TL floorstanders. I have others, in fact I’m giving them all a chance in the rotation the last few days. The Salks have been in my main system since purchase, but yesterday I was reminded how good the Audiovector QR1’s can sound. Today I swapped them out for a pair of Human 81 that Huw Powell makes which I hear are very similar to the EPI 100 of yesteryear. They sound good too. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to swapping these out for my Snell Type D’s which sounded amazing last time they were in the rotation. If time allows I’ll also bring out the JBL L5’s that I’ve had a couple years. They sound good too. In fact it will be a painful decision when I have to let any or several of these go.

I’ve bought and sold a lot of speakers (only three pairs were new) in the last three years. Some stayed longer than others. Some were good, some like the Martin Logan Motion 40 I regret selling. Their AMT tweeter in the Motion 40 is the best tweeter I've ever heard.  If I could only keep one pair of speakers, at this time it would be the Salks. Or the Snells.

first I bought the best I could afford (I saved up 100s of dollars)

Then I sold it at a big loss and bought another pair from the proceeds. I repeated it a few times, selling-losing $-buying what I could afford - fun journey overall. 

My first real speakers were Altec Lansing around 1980. Then some big Cerwin Vega D9.  Probably not an upgrade in sound quality, but they cranked! 

Then a 5 sided pair of dbx soundfield 100.  Pretty cool speakers, really. 

At some point, I had a pair of Canton and PSB.  I can't remember where they fall chronologically. 

Then, Vandersteen 2c.  Sterophile class B, I think. 

Then in the mid 90s, a pair of Von Schweikert VR-4.  I had them until I bought my Von Schweikert Model One (Endeavor RE) a few years ago.  The current pair is likely my last speaker upgrade.

I recently bought a used pair of Vandersteen 2Ce for a second system.