An endless supply of speakers

To Doug Schneider,

Just had to let you know how much I enjoyed your speaker-manufacturer article. Great stuff. Isn’t the world of loudspeakers almost endless? But do you find as newer gear comes down the pipes that even some of the older classic speakers still sound surprisingly good? I believe the very-low-noise threshold in playback today has something to do with it. Or I may be whistling in the wind.

Cheers,
Lloyd Smith

There are some older speakers that still certainly sound good by today’s standards, and it’s possible that improvements in electronics can make some of those classic designs sound even better. For example, I often bring up the Mirage M1 and M3 speakers as designs I still really admire today, and I certainly wouldn’t mind trying them out today with the electronics I have here right now. There are other speakers as well. But insofar as all-out performance goes, speakers have really improved over the last few years and today’s offerings from the top companies are really the best you’ll find, and from what I can tell, things are only going to get better as drivers, crossover components, and cabinets continue to improve. For example, on the 15th of this month you'll see a review of Paradigm's newest Atom Monitor model, the seventh version of this classic design. I'll let the cat out of the bag a bit and tell you that it's the best iteration yet. Yes, it’s true. The supply of speakers is essentially endless, meaning a reviewer such as myself will never run out of things to write about. . . . Doug Schneider