Does anyone like vintage speakers?

Newbee, So your saying that regardless of the quality & design of older speakers, they can not 'compete' with modern speakers? Assuming the foam surrounds on older speakers are addressed (i.e. updating any mechanical or age flaws in older speakers) what is it that makes them outdated? (crossovers?, crossover design?, parts used? wiring? the drivers themselves?)

Naturally there is a cost consideration too...with older costing less & new can cost quite a bit more.

We often hear that older speaker XYZ couldn't be matched with new speakers "costing less than 3, 4, 5000 dollars". Is this waxing nostalgic or can it be true in some cases?

I don't know the answers to these questions, but I'm as interested in them as much as Mechans is.

Usblues...you're right. I had a real muscle car (442). The cars today are a weak attempt of days gone by. Slap a buzz-bomb muffler on a 2 liter engine and you have...well...a loud 2 liter engine. :-)

Newbee,
I don't want to hijack Mechan's thread, but I guess I've wondered the same thing as he has though never actually formed the question in my head. For me, vintage would be from about the mid 70's up to, maybe the mid 90's. A 20-25 year old speaker is old enough to have some age issues (foam surrounds..., components of questionable quality or getting weak) and yet 'young' enough to have benefited from some very good designers that were around back then.

I do have an active interest here as I just picked up a puuurfect pair of Snell Model A's (foams were updated) for a good price...a steal compared to the prices of some speakers today. Everything I've read says the A's can be a real delight & I just wanted to find out what that meant. I haven't got them powered right yet, but I'm looking for the right pre & amp combo.

If the 70's to 90's 'vintage' speakers have some component/design warts...what would the warts be? Are there cures for the warts or has recent designs sort of made them obsolete in some respects?
thanks