Both Wolf_garcia and Ebm nailed it in their prior posts.
"Vintage" in speakers bears no correlation to wine. In this hobby it just means "old" in the context of "outdated".
Yes, I owned the JBL L100s back in their heyday and they were fine IN THEIR ERA. BUT ....
(i) The available competitors back then were comparatively few; and
(ii) that "vintage speaker " technology by today's standards is very very outdated with a matched big erosion of performance in terms of comparative performance.
(iii) Most had a big, skewed and excessively-pronounced top and bottom end to emphasize the college crown craving for "loud" and "boomy" as part of the 60s and 70s rock music offerings. That artificial "West Coast sound" (Google it) was a new manufactured sonic signature of that era designed to appeal to the college crowd masses and boomy rock discs such as Jethro Tull, The Doors, The Doobie Brothers, The Stones et al (NOTE: mostly poorly recorded offerings by today's standards = ergo the many remasters today).
"Vintage speaker" attraction today is masked in a fleeting nostalgia wrapper, because their comparative performance against today's quality product is not even close.
"Vintage" in speakers bears no correlation to wine. In this hobby it just means "old" in the context of "outdated".
Yes, I owned the JBL L100s back in their heyday and they were fine IN THEIR ERA. BUT ....
(i) The available competitors back then were comparatively few; and
(ii) that "vintage speaker " technology by today's standards is very very outdated with a matched big erosion of performance in terms of comparative performance.
(iii) Most had a big, skewed and excessively-pronounced top and bottom end to emphasize the college crown craving for "loud" and "boomy" as part of the 60s and 70s rock music offerings. That artificial "West Coast sound" (Google it) was a new manufactured sonic signature of that era designed to appeal to the college crowd masses and boomy rock discs such as Jethro Tull, The Doors, The Doobie Brothers, The Stones et al (NOTE: mostly poorly recorded offerings by today's standards = ergo the many remasters today).
"Vintage speaker" attraction today is masked in a fleeting nostalgia wrapper, because their comparative performance against today's quality product is not even close.