Has anyone truly compared Vintage vs. Modern?

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.

@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.