Having enjoyed music through 5 decades , I have witnessed the progression of speaker and music production first hand . From the single box record player , through the stereogram era and music centres to separates. Each time there was huge leaps in technology in regards to material physics and dynamics .. speaker enclosures have been made from every possibility imaginable. Some really exotic laminates and metals ..
But the majority are box’s made of wood or wood fibres with particular coatings..
There are still some truly exotic Avant garde speakers if you’ve got the money but I’ve not heard anything personally radically better than 10 years ago ..different certainly , and great sounding but not in leaps and bounds
Are we being duped ?
This is great thread. Haven't replied thus far, purely because there isn't one simple answer.
As a person who grew up on my parents radiogram, I've concluded, rightly or wrongly that hi-fi has changed a lot over the decades but not necessarily improved.
Firstly, I think age plays a part in what we hear. How many youngsters analyse the quality of their parents systems? I never did. Only when my dad purchased my first record player did I really take any notice of its tonal and other qualities.
We have to, also, bear in mind that most systems had tone knobs or slides (bass, treble and some also had midrange controls) - there was even graphic equalizers either built-in or as a separate component. So companies IMHO had carte blanche because you could change the frequencies to suit your room needs or mood, to a certain degree.
I believe that nowadays, due to tone controls mostly gone apart from a select few brands, speakers and amps have to be voiced differently.
When I briefly owned Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary around 18 months ago, they sounded very modern compared to the Denton XP2 I heard in the late 70s.
There are other reasons... but this is my interpretation.