Does old-fashioned necessarily mean out of date?

New or vintage gear this dont matter at all ...

Sound is understood by acoustics and we must experiment in a room for a specific speakers pair and specific biased ears...

If you dont use experiments to tune the ears/speakers/ room then you will not reach optimal good sound, nevermind the gear price ...It is my experience...

There is no Bill Gates royal road to S.Q. without acoustics, mechanicals and electricals controls ...Call that "tweaks" if you want but it is a name which reduce what is a fundamental necessity to a secondary commodity  ....I prefer to call them acousticals,mechanicals and electrical embeddings controls devices... It does not necessarily cost much but it ask for experiments...

As is so often the case, the best answer is, "It depends." I am still enjoying my Infinity IRS Beta speaker system - I scrounged up the original receipt today and it's dated 11/30/1990. It has needed a bit of service over the years, including replacing the woofer surrounds and recent repair (and mods) to the xover/servo unit. Given its age, it probably qualifies as "vintage."  But it still sounds fantastic and will embarrass many a modern speaker.

The component with the longest continuous use in my system is my McIntosh MR80 tuner, which I bought back on 11/80. Of course, radio isn't what it used to be so it doesn't get nearly the use it did back then. It has also been serviced a few times over the years, but it still performs superbly and I live in a very difficult FM reception area. It would be difficult to improve upon this with a more modern tuner.

I would once again like to thank everyone who responded to my inquiry for their insights and perspectives.  I will add a few more comments myself about the Ars-Sonum Filarmonia amp to help explain why I purchased it, age notwithstanding.  First and foremost, as I have mentioned already, the sound it produces is glorious. I will add that it is also charming to behold (at least to my eyes).  The stainless steel chassis is tastefully understated; the amp employs bespoke hand-wound transformers and other premium parts; it takes inspiration from but (as I understand it with my limited knowledge of electronics) it departs in innovative ways from traditional EL-34 topologies; and it is hand-crafted (in Spain), the latter fact being of particular appeal to me as a professor of Folklore.  Finally, Rich Brkich, who is as venerable as the amp itself, stands behind it and made certain that it performed flawlessly before releasing it to to me, no matter how eager I was to to call it my own.

I must say that this Ars-Sonum Filarmonia amp look really beautiful...

It is not my primary desired factor but i dont doubt your appreciation  of his S.Q.

I will add a few more comments myself about the Ars-Sonum Filarmonia amp to help explain why I purchased it, age notwithstanding.