Vintage Speaker Greats

When you have a look at the designs of speakers today and their boasts of high efficiency you can't help but ask is this all that modern consumers gauge sound reproduction on? Every era has it's wish lists in speaker marketing. The 60's marketed speakers were pushing larger than life designs. The 70's revelled at low harmonic distortion figures.

The 80's were all about multiple driver enclosures and innovative driver materials and stereo imaging. The 90's...well lets not say anything. Now in the modern millennium it's all about slim sleek cabinetry and how efficient they are. Really in the pursuit of incredible sound reproduction why do we care so much about efficiency? I mean if you review the essential specifications and are thrilled with the performance and design would you not drive them with whatever is needed for their optimal performance? You have to ask if sound waves have not changed in length and characteristics then how can these modern enclosures produce a bass/mids sound wave the same as the cabinets of old? Crossover points and driver build is of much greater importance yet we see time and time again the consumer asking "what's the efficiency?"
Sure the ability to convert the power to sound is important but it is not characteristic of it's musicality or tone. An ideal frequency curve response without peaks or troughs are of greater importance in the musicality of a speaker. This is hand in hand with distortion rates and signal to noise ratios. Lets educate ourselves and not simply go with the trending topic when seeking your holy grail reproducer. Specifications will narrow your field of choice, your ears will bring your conclusion.
Here's a few more vintage audio greats...