The ‘nicer’ one still is a big honking obvious speaker sitting out in the middle of the room. I’m hoping for small, discrete, not noticed.
a subwoofer unit can be in book cabinets, under tables, be a table.
electrostatic speakers or other flat panel forms have the same width and height but little depth. these then might be placed differently than box enclosures.
for best sound there is always a sweet spot where sit down space should be located.
I can’t really speak to home systems, however in my “fun” car I still have the major components of the stereo that I used in the late '80s. I am still using the two ADS amplifiers and in my opinion they are damn near the best that has ever been made. THD at .001%, clear as a bell and I wouldn’t trade them any of the new stuff. If you look on Ebay they are still bringing a good dollar amount so I am not the only one who thinks this.
As someone whose life, and especially social life, revolved around listening to music in the late 60’s and early-to-mid 70’s, I am certain that the average “stereo” today sounds a lot better than the average one of my youth. There is simply no comparison in the distortion-free frequency response (dynamic range) and, most particularly, in what I’ll call separation - not just between channels, but the ability to isolate the sound of say the snare drum, or the bass, or whatever, in your listening ear. That being said, I believe the best speakers I ever heard were a pair from Acoustic Research circa 1970.
Your husband will be happy with new tower speakers (yes, they exist), even if he likes the sound of his old ones. There are nice ones out there. Getting him to go to micro-mini little speakers I think could really be a challenge.
As for the general “vintage” vs. “new” components – you best believe there are mid-fi on up components these days (some SS transistors, some tubes, some very swell turntable decks). I think they’d all be more “modern” in style pretty much, but I like the looks of the vintage Marantzs, as do a lot of people. I don’t see the point in upgrading the receiver or tuner, or table, really, especially if he’s found a cartridge that really locks in with his turntable.
Respect to engineercompgeek, but there are certainly well-recorded cassettes which are amazing sounding. Nothing commercially made I can think of, but I’ve heard some home-made tapes made with high-end decks and careful eyes on the peaks that just sound gorgeous. There is a reason plenty of studios still at least track on tape, or bounce to tape then back to digital – I don’t think it’s completely jive (these guys typically have EE degrees, but are also beholden to customer desires, so cum grano salis). Yeah, I know 2 inch tape is not the same as a little cassette, but it’s not impossible. I’m skeptical someone could really tell a 356k mp3 from an original, as well, but that’s not something I know about or care about, and for all I know you’re right.
I agree, but even bass is nearing the same quality. To the OP, take your husband out to a large audio store and let him spend some time listening to a range of smaller speakers. He’ll probably find something he likes.