# Audio electronics are better & cheaper than ever. How about high end audio speakers?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-electronics-are-better-cheaper-than-ever-how-about-high-end-audio-speakers/256709
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 24, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-electronics-are-better-cheaper-than-ever-how-about-high-end-audio-speakers/256709 "2004-07-24T18:43:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-electronics-are-better-cheaper-than-ever-how-about-high-end-audio-speakers/256709/1 "2004-07-24T18:43:38Z")
Are high end audio speakers lots better than they were 5 , 10 or 20 years ago?
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### Author:  [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2004, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-electronics-are-better-cheaper-than-ever-how-about-high-end-audio-speakers/256709/2 "2004-07-24T19:49:15Z")
You first have to find agreement in the term “better.”
We’ve done the super-duper speaker wire topic to death, and some folks are absolutely insistent that $30/ft. “oxygen-free” wire just blows away everything else.
I think the law of diminishing marginal returns applies here. My thinking is: when you get into the high fours- (or five-) figure stratosphere, you find need to be re-thinking your music selection.
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### Author:  [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2004, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-electronics-are-better-cheaper-than-ever-how-about-high-end-audio-speakers/256709/3 "2004-07-24T20:33:31Z")
Ex-audiophile here.
_Overall_, I do not believe speakers have significantly improved over the last 20 years. But there has been one _area_ that has seen _very_ significant improvement: small, bookcase-sized speakers. Today’s small speakers are _much_ better than the small speakers offered 20 years.
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### Author:  [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2004, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-electronics-are-better-cheaper-than-ever-how-about-high-end-audio-speakers/256709/4 "2004-07-25T01:51:57Z")
I think the Klipsch bookshelf and subwoofers are excellent. I don’t remember my fathers stuff sounding that good when I was a kid. Then again, I was a kid, and he could’ve had some el-cheapos. But the price? OMG!
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2004, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/audio-electronics-are-better-cheaper-than-ever-how-about-high-end-audio-speakers/256709/5 "2004-07-25T06:06:57Z")
Actually, I think computer technology and advanced manufacturing _have_ improved speakers markedly in the last ten or fifteen years. I can buy a pair of Paradigm Studio 40’s now for a little over $1000, and twenty years ago you couldn’t have found a speaker for $5,000 that would sound as good. And in constant dollars the difference is even greater.