[cris.rodrigo]

I was recently entrenched in a lively discussion with another audiopile about the sound of his Klipsch Pro Media 2.1's. They are approximately one year old and he was lamenting about how their crispness is all but gone compared to when he originally bought them. After his complaint, we began to speculate as to whether the crispness is really the first thing to go on ANY set of speakers.

So, what is the natural decline of speakers and their sound?

What is the first thing to go and what is the average life of a quality set of speakers?

I know many people here would consider the 2.1's far from audiophile material, nonetheless, my interest in the nature of speakers and their decline still stands. Help anyone?

 

[450]

Could it be that your friend just got used to them? That same phenomenon (if I should even call it that) happened to one of my friends who owns the ProMedia 5.1.

 

[mulveling]

I'm no expert, but all that I've read so far indicates the opposite - if anything speakers get better over time, unless they're abused. I know there are many 20+ year old speaker models with mega-hours on them that are still held in high esteem and highly valued compared to more current models (like the Polk SDA/SRS series).

Either the Promedias were abused, were defective, or you friend's hearing recently improved

 

[jjcapurro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cris.rodrigo ...I know many people here would consider the 2.1's far from audiophile material...

You got that right... I hope he doesn't consider himself an audiophile because of these speakers...

Quote:

Originally Posted by mulveling I'm no expert, but all that I've read so far indicates the opposite - if anything speakers get better over time, unless they're abused. I know there are many 20+ year old speaker models with mega-hours on them that are still held in high esteem and highly valued compared to more current models (like the Polk SDA/SRS series). Either the Promedias were abused, were defective, or you friend's hearing recently improved

My vote is on the latter... A good friend of mine has a pair of modified Klipsch LaScala's from about 30 years ago and they sound fantastic. Another friend has a pair of DCM Time windows from 1980 and they too sound great still... Have your friend learn from his experience with inexpensive speakers and instruct him that the only way to cure his longing for better sound is to begin a ritualistic series of upgrades...

Cheers,
Jeremy