Is there any reason to upgrade speakers due to age?

[Things change I've changed]

I've recently been upgrading my gear slowly and was wondering is there any point in upgrading old speakers that are still in working order?

I have a pair of B&W DM602 S2, which are nearly 20 years old now!!, They are in mint condition and still sound pretty good to my ears but I'm wondering if it's worth upgrading due to the age of the speaker?, do they degrade in sound quality over time? for example the ferrofluid in the tweeters maybe gumming up a little and dulling the sound? I just feel a bit of sparkle missing from the tweeters but B&W's say that the fluid should be fine even after 20 years, they still hold parts for the speaker and charge £90 for the two tweeters which I thought was pretty good.

I was maybe considing the new B&W 685 S2 @ £500 but I'm wondering if I'll be getting a worthwhile upgrade, factoring in the sale of my 602's the upgrade may only cost £300-350.

Any guys on here still enjoying older speakers?

 

[Blackbadger]

Various factors to consider so there is no firm answer.

Type of speaker
Quality of materials used
Well treated ?


The materials often used in speakers are composites of rubber, papers and glues.
These can deteriorate with age.
Also the chances of being over-driven increase with age causing actual damage.

I'm running some 1970's Quad ESL 57's. Which were serviced approx 10 years ago.
They still perform excellently. Not ideal for a gabba session, however for regular music/films they hold there own.

Get the tweeters replaced for £90 instead of writing them off.
Good quality equipment, remains that.

 

[kitfit1]

I've got a pair of B&W CDM1 SE that i've had for about 25 years, still sound as good as they did when i bought them. One thing that always do every 5 years or so is turn the base/mid-range unit through 180 degrees. Gravity does come into play with heavy units, so it's always a good idea to just rotate them 180 degrees.

 

[Ste]

Nope. Had some 20 year old mission 753 that were great.

Suspect eventually they will fail rather than degrade eg. The rubber perishing

 

[EYEREX]

Still use my JPW Sonata's every day and they still sound great have had them from new so there about 24 years old

 

[Ev0]

I've got a set of Rogers book shelf speakers sitting here that are coming up for 20 years old, look like new and when I finally get round to setting them up hopefully sounding good too!