Vintage vs. New, Risk vs. Reward


There are lots of respectable merchants for used vintage high end equipment.  Having developed my chops during the golden age of hi fi, the vintage has lots of appeal. The question is about the risk of making a rather large investment in what today “measures perfectly” but what tomorrow could quickly  end up a paper weight due to age.  This versus an investment in new which may bring with it, in addition to the probability of better reliability, but also the latest in technological advancement.  I recognize that “new” and “reliability” are much different (reduced) standards than years gone by (IMO/experience).

Appreciate your highs on this topic.. 

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Showing 1 response by jwei

Longevity can be an issue.  Elements deteriorate and fail with age.

Some obvious items include tubes and capacitors in electronics and rubber or other soft compounds in electromechanical devices like speaker surrounds, cartridge suspensions, rubber belts in turntables and cd players, etc.

But if you hanker for a certain sound, like the remembered allure of a peaky speaker, the modern stuff may not provide that for you.