CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

benareeno · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 1614 Location: ottawa, canada

Would a speaker from 1992 have any deficiencies that would make it less of a speaker than that which can buy today? Tweeter design or woofer design seem to be very much the same to me...

Something like an Axiom ax-2 speaker set which received some acclaim in the early 90's vs a B&W 602 s3...from an audible standpoint, would there be much difference? I would want something accurate...nothing that uses inaccuracy to lure in a buyer.

But...if tweeter design or woofer design has advanced in a significant fashion, I suppose something like the ax-2 would not be of interest...any thoughts here?

**kal** · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 9:38 pm Post subject:

Some things have certainly advanced but a lot of it is marketing hype.

Materials have gotten better, or should I say, manufacturing using more exoteric materials has gotten better/cheaper/easier to do/possible. Now they use metal infused tweeters and other drivers for added rigidity. (ex: Beryllium/Aluminum/Cobalt).

The B&W 602's (IIRC) have a soft dome tweeter and paper cones.

Things to look out on older speakers are caps that are really really old and foam surrounds as they both deteriorate. The caps dry up and stop working right and the foam surrounds dry & crack. Better speakers (even those from 20 years ago) rarely used foam surrounds however. You can replace both too but that's added cost.

I think you can certainly get a lot more for your money today than what you could in the past for the same dollar amount (and that's completely ignoring any inflation).

Kal

benareeno · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 1614 Location: ottawa, canada

don't the B&W's have a kevlar cone?

**kal** · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 9:50 pm Post subject:

Ah, possibly. I was thinking of some of the lower end models. So it may not even have a soft dome tweeter.

Kal

**kal** · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 9:52 pm Post subject:

Not sure which 602 you're referring to (or if there's more than one), but I found:

The DM 602 S2 is a 2-way 4th-order vented-box system with an ultra-cool looking 7 inch woven Kevlar cone bass/mid driver and a 1" aluminum dome tweeter

Source: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0900/bwdm602.htm

Are these newer? They're 2000 vintage.

Kal

benareeno · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 1614 Location: ottawa, canada

602's have 3 vintages...the original, the s2 and the s3.

I have 601 s3's which I think sound really nice...and I just picked up 3 identical 602 originals. I'm yet to test them out though. But...3 identicals is definitely the way to go.

I see a pair of axiom ax-2's for 125 bucks locally...thought they might be nice. But further research shows that the foam does in fact degrade, so I'm likly not keen on them.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 10:23 pm Post subject:

**kal** · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 11:25 pm Post subject:

ChrisWiggles · Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 9:22 pm Post subject:

A great speaker is still a great speaker.

But materials have gotten a lot better, and you can get really amazing speakers for relatively little money.

If you're going for reference-quality accuracy, there have been a LOT of strides made with more advanced materials and particularly more advanced measurements and computer modeling.

The kinds of things really accurate high-performance loudspeakers take into account these days are subtleties that designers were hardly even aware of 20-30 years ago, or had a lot more difficulty measuring and analyzing.

But there's still just as much overpriced crap out there today too, so...

benareeno · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 1614 Location: ottawa, canada

how about some examples of well priced speakers that are currently in the market? I think accuracy is king Smile

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 1:55 pm Post subject:

FLOOD · Joined: 11 Jan 2011 Posts: 3

Yes it would make a big difference,

In the years technology grew and we were able to build better sounding speakers.
Like the flat wire invention by magnat and the tweeter in front of the woofer system (mostly found in cars) invented by toa.
there are other numerous little things invented over the years... like plastic, wich i think is not the best resonator

At the end of the 80's people started to build plastic cabinet loudspeakers, they look awful and sound even worse.
Now in the year 2011 people build "high" quality loudspeakers in very small plastic modern style 5.1 sound systems. and they sell it for quite a lot of money. some are good some are bad. I think the versions with the somewhat bigger cabinet design that actually looks like a loudspeaker sound better.

In the old days the speakerunits themself produced less energy than nowadays. so that had to compensated with a good designed cabinet. the design now is based on looks. Some Brands use the same cabinet design for over 20 years, and the newer versions only have better sounding units and drivers. so in some cases broken woofers and tweeters can be replaced by newer ones if the original ones are out of stock.

I got myself a pair of old wharfedale denton2 and a pair of denton3 speakers for 25 euro. 35 years old, sounded very good for the amount of money. replaced the caps at first. later replaced the tweeters and wooffers and designed a filter by filtering active with an active crossover . and now they sound even better.

I think its the same as with the projectors, why buy a new big ass tv/beamer for a shitload off money that does not give better picture quality than an older crt projector wich can be bought for a fair price.

Greetings