How old are your speaker?

My ADS L1290s I bought in 1986 still sound great. After over 24 years in my main system I finally upgraded them just because I was ready for a speaker upgrade, not because they were failing or sounding bad.

My mains are Marantz HD-880's that I bought new in 1977 or 1978. They still sound great, but I did have to replace the foam surrounds, which had disintegrated, on the woofer.

I think that is the most common thing to "wear out" on older speakers. Some woofers have rubber surrounds rather than foam and last longer. It should be pretty easy to tell if they've deteriorated by how they sound, but you may want to visually inspect them to see if your surrounds are due for replacement.

I've had my Paradigm Monitor 9's for 12+ years, can't remember when I bought them exactly. No issues...yet!

Jeff

I had my first speakers for 31 years before I replaced them.
Probably should have replaced them 3 or 4 years sooner, but I was rather fond of them.

My JBL speakers were 11 years old and working fine when I bought some Polk speakers to replace them a couple of years back. The funny thing is I didn't get around to hooking up the new Polk speakers until just a few weeks ago, so they were still in their original boxes, and unopened two years later. During the unpacking stage, it occurred to me that one or more of them might not work, but they all ended up working great. The JBLs were still working too, so they'll be going onto a smaller home theater setup in one of the bedrooms.

Other than foam surrounds rotting and caps getting fat. All should be good unless someone got happy with the volume knob too much.

2 months and counting

My mains, paradigm monitor 11's are 3 years old, my surrounds, and center are a little newer, but still older than 2yrs.

My newest is my subs (i just built them last summer).

Still have a pair of ADS L-520's bought in 1980. Wow, that makes them about 32 years old now. They have been babied and fed NAD watts over most of the last three decades so they still look and sound fantasic. Rubber surrounds are the best They are the main speakers in a secondary 2 channel system in our living room and I still get amazed how good they sound. I'll probably hold on to them as long as I am around.

I 2nd that emotion... especially on the rubber surrounds...

I have a air of ADS L-710's bought about 1979 or 1980... they're still my mains and they still sound GREAT ! ... originally powered by my Mits DA-A75 ( 75 per chan ) power amp, they are now powered by a Denon 100w per channel amp ... the mits retired to the bedroom and feeds a couple of boston A60's...

i'm a 2 channel diehard.... i only got 2 ears... anything more sounds contrived...

rgds,
ron g

I just barely replaced my Infinity Reference 6's. I bought them in '88 or '89. The foam surrounds on the woofers are in need of replacing, and when that is done, the towers will find a home in the basement system. The surrounds and center channel that went with the R-6's are already down there. When I bought the Infinitys (pre- HK buyout) there was not even a center channel offered in the line. I have the first "center" speaker Infinity made, as well as a more modern version. I'm hoping to get at least as many years, probably more, out of my new Energy Veritas 6.3's.

Sweet! The L-710's are incredible speakers. I assume you have the see- through bronze metal grills like my 520's? Man, I miss the L series from ADS.
A friend of mone had L-990's in perfect condition too. It's a cult.

My Gallo 3.5s aren't that old 2 years(?) but my Gallo Solos are still in use in a second system after 16 years

I had a pair of Celestion DL-6 speakers from 1986 to 2002 (gave them to a friend and they made it to 2005 when they died during a clipping incident brought on by a rather loud party).

In 2004 I bought a set of Boston Acoustics VR-M60s, VR-M50s, VRC and PV900. Still my main HT speakers.

In my living room I have, since January, a nice pair of PSB imagine Bs.

My mains are Vandersteen 2Cs I bought in 1987, going on 25 years now!

I've got 3 Ascend Acoustics Sierra-1's for L/C/R that are just over 4 years old and a pair of Ascend Acoustics HTM-200SE's that are the same age doing surround duty. I've been very pleased with the system.

My Paradigm Monitor 7's with CC-370 center and ADP-470 surrounds have been in service for about 6 years now, and they still sound just as wonderful as they did when I bought them. Only thing is the finishes on them now have a few scuffs.

About one year now and loving them still. Hoping to have them around for several years to come unless the upgrade bug bites lol

I wish I had the patients of sticking with one pair of speakers as long as some one you guys..Maybe if I had the space a pair or two would make it longer than two years in my house. Well it could be worst I could be doing this with people,I'm no George Clooney!

Djoel

hi paraneer..
nope... mine have black grilles on them... i've not ever seen the 520's, but i'll bet their perty...

i miss 'em too... i really think i'd have to hunt hard to replace them with anything else in their size/performance range... then again, my ears are that much older, now as well...

rgds,
ron g

im a habitual upgrader, every few months like clockwork im changing something just because, but im trying to get out of that by stepping into a higher class of equipment than the normal box store black friday special.

normally after a few weeks of having something id be browsing the forums for my next item, havnt done that with these yet, knock on wood lol.

hope to have them for a long time.

!973, 1978, 1982 and 1994 for me. Caps replaced on the 1970's speakers.

My JBL L7's L5's are about 20 years old but I bought them used about 4 years ago. I hope they may last the rest of my life. I have a set of JBL L20t's and L60t's that were made in the 80's and they still look and sound great. A lot of the older speakers sound as good if not better than some of the newer models available today. OMHO Another good question would be how old is your turntable?

I bought them in 2006, but my Polk SDA 1Cs and 2Bs were made in 87. I've replaced a driver and swapped out the tweeters, but they are still the best Polk I've heard.

That I still own:

Norman Laboratories Model 10 - 1978
Yamaha NS P60s- 1995
Paradigm PDR 8 - 1995
Klipsch Quintet lls - 1996 or 7?
Paradigm PDR 8 (two) - 19967 or 7?
Audiosource SW10 - 1998?
Wharfedale 70th Anniv. - 2002?
Audiosource 5.1 system now on the patio - 2003
Paradigm CT 110 - 2005
SVS PC 25-31 - 2005
Emo Sub 12s (two) - 2011
Dayton Audio Sub 80s (two) 2011

Coming soon (on order) - Magnepan MMGs (patiently waiting)

I built my main pair starting probably about 78-79 and slowly upgraded them as better sounding tweeters became available. I think they still sound fine and are Gefco rubber surround 8" woofers, Realistic 1.5 dome midranges, and Philips dome tweeters. I just tried to pick speakers that matched up well level and range wise and used simple caps for the mid and tweet.
I have added a OK sub and am still happy with them to this day though they slowly got bigger starting out as 2 ways in a small box and ending up in a medium sized box as the 3 ways they are now. The boxes for the last upgrade came from Wassons Lafayete Radio here in Portland and I'm pretty sure they folded up about 20 years ago.
I have since been using a small shop that sells components and does reconing and that's where I get the things for my cars and any replacement speakers or parts needed or reconed.
JaMac is the place if anyone local wants to look them up. http://jamacspeakers.com/

My Snell C/IV's just turned 21, might have to have a drink in their honor. New in 1991 when I was 10, but they're new to me now and I plan on keeping them for awhile.