Can a vintage piece over 40 years old be Highend

Having owned Fisher gear of this vintage (and listened to Leak gear of the same era), my recollection is that it's pretty "colored" by today's more neutral standard for high-end gear. That does not mean it's not very pleasant -- just not terribly accurate. But the bottom line is: do you enjoy what you're hearing? If so, stay with what you already own. If you have not had the preamp/amp/tuner reconditioned by someone who's well qualified, it might be worth the money to have the key components upgraded. Over time, components such as capacitors, transformers, etc., decline in performance.

Raytheprinter's right, it's what it does, not what it cost or how old it is. After all would we still be using old gear, if it wasn't any good?

My opinion is that the short answer is yes. I have listened to the Braun L-810 loudspeaker since the 70's and in many respects (IMHO) they compete well with good quality gear manufactured recently. The Braun L-810's were the prototype/model for the ADS speaker of the same designation. However, I remember the dealer at the time telling me that the drivers in the Brauns were superior to those in the ADS (I certainly do recall the price was significantly higher). The drivers truly are exceptional. Easily heard as superior to 2 very well known similarly sized higher-fi speakers of recent vintage, which actually sounded quite good themselves. The downside: not the last word in bottom octave extension, and their physical appearance (plain white box with aluminum grill) doesn't have the highest WAF factor ever achieved. This is a sincere evaluation of a product I've used happily for many, many years. However, in the interest in full disclosure I'll state that I'll be selling both my pairs of L-810s here on Audiogon soon, as I recently took delivery of a pair of Silverline Boleros. Thanks to all participants, Happy New Year, and good listening.

the age dont really matter it's how the gear was built to begin with,i actually prefer vintage speakers over most newer model's,i think speaker builder's/designer's have lost their way in the last 20 year's or so.

Bought some small Electro-voice spks. for my dad which were made in the 60's and I was suprised to hear how good they sounded. The ADS L-500's from the 70's are a fantastic 2-way spk. I remember the Braun loudspeakers. Sold audio equip. many yrs. ago and I remember the Braun's were superb sounding.