Has there been any substantial improvements in mass marketed speakers in the past 40/30/20 years? I had a chance to listen to an old pair of EV's in a second hand shop a while back and was blown away by how good it sounds. It was an old fashion 3-way with paper cones.

So what's going on? How can this speaker, design and built 30 to 40 years ago compete with modern speakers that are designed and simulated on computers, and incorporate every exotic material that was unknown to man a few years ago? These vintages aren't made of carbon, titanium, kevlar, or other exotic alloys. They're not precisely time aligned in driver arrangement nor are their enclosures computer designed to minimize interference and what not. You'd think that with all the advancements in material science, design process and measurement techniques, there's be a huge gap between today's speakers and those of yesteryears.

So, with all the modern tools we have at our disposal, do you think there has been any major advancements in speaker design and contruction? If so, what do you see them to be?

Gar.