Has anyone truly compared Vintage vs. Modern?

@mtbiker29 

I have listened to “Vintage” and newer equipment and there are a bunch of caveats. A lot of older kit sounded great in the day, but compared to today’s stuff might not sound as good. Not because it’s not good, but because capacitors dry up  or contacts become dirty or corroded or in the case of a couple  of my amplifier’s, the heat from the output tubes damaged some caps and resistors!  So that Sansui or pioneer receiver you bought in the 80s, might need hundreds of dollars to bring it back to spec and in the worse case the parts aren’t made any more. I just read of someone who was trying to figure out what he should do with some Audio Research amps.  The part he needs isn’t made anymore and now he has a door stop.

FWIW, I had the SX-1250 for seven years being bought brand new in 1977 and it was paired with JBL L65 speakers which are still in daily use after refoaming/maintenance in the late 1990s. Each successive newer amp I’ve had with my L65s has struck me as better than the 1250….I’m using a 35 wpc PrimaLuna tube integrated with them presently and I think it’s the best of the bunch. Sort of still with the vintage speakers but my experience with the much-loved silver faced behemoth from the 70s has been that it’s been clearly bettered by newer gear…

They don't make them like they used to...and it's a good thing. One thing of note is that the old power transistors are not made anymore. They have been replaced with better sounding designs. NPN/PNP/JFET/MOSFET/FET all have been designed and improved over the years. Some older designs were good in their day, but time has marched on. 

I have never done an A/B comparison, but a few years ago I enjoyed using a re-capped Accuphase E-303X. When I switched to modern amps (Hegel, GATO and now Circle Labs), though, I would say that it was clear that they were better.

Sorry, this is not a direct answer… but in every decade for the last five decades amps of the same relative value have sounded significantly better than the previous decades’. So, ergo, modern better by no small margin.

One can (depends on the circuit, and more) modernize the parts in a vintage amplifier and make it sound superior to just about anything else. Parts quality can be half the battle, if not more.

But that would be called a ’ringer’, and it’s not a truly fair test.

I re-did a NAD 3120, with premium non-magnetic resistors, film and foil caps, and 3 or 4 bits of unreleased technology, more actually (eg our unreleased fuse technology, for one..)..and I keep it around to mess with people. To hook it up and feign innocence, when it is compared to a $5-10k integrated.

To sit there and say ’gosh, it’s amazing how good that old stuff is and how new stuff isn’t all it’s cracked up to be’. Or some other such stuff.

All while I’m sitting beside some poor unsuspecting person, who is listening to this NAD 3120... who’s just blown $7k on an integrated, or what not. All while the little NAD is hanging in there and literally tripping up some sonic aspects of the $7k integrated.

Oh yes, it still has the $14.99 Value Village price sticker on it. Icing on the cake.

Oh, that such fun can be had in this world.

Of course I let them in on the joke. It wouldn’t be right to let it continue..

This is sort of a loaded question.  what year do you consider vintage to start? are we comparing vintage to modern supper expensive or similar price range (adjusted for inflation-time)? 

if you compare top quality vintage with mid-range current then you may be surprised (taking into account the vintage has been restored) how good the vintage is. 

Are we also comparing features? as many vintage items had more features but lack modern connectivity. 

I have Sansui CA 2000 preamp that's been fully restored, and it took me two years and big money to replace it (McIntosh C2700 supplanted it). 

So, in reality you need to ask the right questions about specific items as it depends so much on the two components you're comparing.  

@mtbiker29 Your question makes no sense... There are different kind of vintage amp and different kind of modern amp. You must specify which model and what period!

@glennewdick @viethluu I think the question is pretty clear.  I gave examples of exactly what I'd be comparing against on the old side. and my virtual system tells you I run a Luxman 509x today.  

Everyone else, thanks so very much.  I didn't think there was going to be anything worth chasing here but had to ask. 

It really depends on the component.  I can take entirely vintage parts that are 70 to 80 years old and make a speaker system that will, for my taste, blow away any modern system except those that are essentially good replicas of such parts (e.g., G.I.P. replicas of Western Electric).  I would even use old paper in oil caps from that era for that speaker.  If low power is acceptable, I would take a vintage 70 year old Western Electric 124 amp (350B output tube) over just about anything I have heard.  The same goes for some vintage linestages and preamps.  

Of course there are no "vintage" DACs and servers etc. (depending of course on what one counts as vintage), but there are not too many modern DACs I would take over a 20-year old Audio Note DAC 5 signature--these still sound very good.

Yes I have used a Marantz 2285. I had it for about a years while I fixed it up for my dad and gave it back to him. At the time I had a Peach tree Deco (one of their first models) and I ran a pair of B&W 703s with the Marantz 2285 to try it out. It was years ago so from memory….. the 2285 had better bass with more or a rich sound to it. I did not really notice much loss in detail. In a small room it was more than loud enough. But and a big but, on all old piece the volume pot/buttons were corroded and had little stuff like that needed fixed. 
 

for me unless you like the look or owned one in the past it would not be something I would go buy. As an estate sale purchase/garage sale find, yes 100% go for it.  

@glennewdick @viethluu I think the question is pretty clear.  I gave examples of exactly what I'd be comparing against on the old side. and my virtual system tells you I run a Luxman 509x today.  

I've owned vintage Luxman gear from the early 80's specifically the L560 the predecessor to the current class A models. and I would put that amp up against any current amps. and it had 50wpc pure class A not the 30wpc the current one has. 

I've restored 4 Sansui professional series amps, preamps and tuners all with surprisingly good results. the Sansui CA200 preamp was in my main system for a couple years while i looked for a preamp, had to spend big on a McIntosh C2700 tube preamp to supplant it. so yes, some vintage gear holds up quite well to modern stuff. just depends greatly on which vintage stuff you're talking about.

go ask a Altec, western electric speaker guy what they think. Or vintage Tannoy gold's many love them, maybe a Sansui Au111 integrated tube amp (that sell for over $5k now).  

I had the MARANTZ 2245 and JBL L100’s in my college dorm back in the Jurassic Era of this wacky hobby ( the ‘70’s). It was considered a top performer in ITS era (emphasis added).

In brief, even today’s modestly priced strata equipment will best it. The large myriad of today’s available options of a perceived “ top performer” will smoke it …. Not even close.

”Vintage” in audio just means “old“ , Ok ….that has some ad hoc nostalgia appeal to a select few cohort today. Fine …. Each to his own …. Carry on.
A good example of this type of pure nostalgia appeal would be with the 60’s classic car enthusiasts. A bit of fun with resurrected memories of a misspent youth, but never a contender for performance with a comparison to today’s buzzillion offerings.

@akg_ca

+1

I still have my Marantz 2040… which I occationally bring out… I have thought of having it reconditioned just for fun, it sounds terrible. But I know from following the progression of audio decade by decade that the progression goes only one way… better.

Now if you just loved the warm sound and glow of tubed sound of the fifties, most likely you will be incredibly disappointed to hear it again… unless your emotional connection overrides the reality of the sound.