Does anyone like vintage speakers?

nearly every vintage speaker I have heard sounds coloured, has flabby bass, and limited in both frequency extremes

If that's all you've heard, then I submit you haven't heard a properly set up vintage system. The key element here is enclosure size. Many of the better drivers from Altec, E-V, JBL and other were designs to sound best in really large or even infinite baffle type enclosures. I'm talking about cabinets with 15 cu. ft. or greater volume. As a practical matter most manufacturers ended up making many models in smaller, less optimal cabinets and tailored the bass response to sound bassy as opposed to accurate. Examples of vintage speakers with truly great bass extension and performance are Bozak Concert Grands or E-V Georgians/Patricians.

Many of the better vintage manufacturers came out of the movie theater industry and made their names producing speakers that were very large, went very loud and could project their sound in a controlled manner throughout a large area. I know many people love their VOTTs, but I just don't think they sound right in normal size and styled listening rooms. What these speakers can do extremely well is midrange frequencies. Voices, arguably the toughest instrument to get right, can sound very real on these type of speakers.

IMO modern designs clearly have a more extended treble than vintage. It's a debatable point whether this is truly critical or not.

Classical Audio Reproduction, a fine Michigan company, manufactures loudspeakers based upon vintage design, but uses modern materials. I wouldn't say they are better than competing, more modern based designs, but they certainly are competitive with them.

New speakers today are compact, beautiful to look at (wife friendly) handle lots o power,built w/ close tolerances, ect,ect, blah,blah,blah.... It doesnt mean IMO that they are "better" than the vintage speakers. Oh yea, they handle more power, easy to bi-amp, tri- amp ect... but....I use JBL 4345's paired w/ modded Khorns, (alk xtreme slope xovers, alk trachorn, beyma tweeter, solid silver cardas wiring) 2 MC2000's driving Khorns, 1 MC 352 JBL's, and I would put this up to MOST ANY of new speakers out there! Of course Its NOT just ME sayin how great this sounds but others who spent mucho on the newest greatest.... It definetly is a BIG footprint but, I think it would cost alot more to get a "modern" design....

"If that's all you've heard, then I submit you haven't heard a properly set up vintage system."

I have heard more than a dozen vintage systems in a few countries, in a variety of rooms from small to large, and with a variety of amplifiers. They all seem to have the same colorations. Maybe you are submitting that none of them knew what they were doing - and you would be right. After all, if they had a clue, they would get rid of their horrible vintage systems and get something modern :)

I am using the Great Plains Altec 604 drivers in a large 11.5 cubic foot MLTL enclosure made by Serious Stereo. I agree with Onhwy61 that many of these speakers need a larger enclosure to sound their best. I am getting deep tight bass, very high resolution and an incredible wide open soundstage. There is a presence to the music that I find missing in most modern speakers. Overall I think vintage speakers can be as good or better than some of the best new technology speakers as long as they are implemented properly.

At the this summer's Capital Audio Fest in DC, I thought the two best sounding rooms were a modern and a vintage room---polar opposites really. One had Wilson Sashas driven by the D'Agostino solid state amps. The other had Western Electric/Jensen field coil speakers driven by electronics using Western Electric transformers and other vintage parts. Hearing Peter McGrath's uncompressed recordings in the Wilson room was a real treat; they had a spooky transparency and natural detail that seemed awfully close to "real" in my book. However, ordinary CDs in the vintage room also sounded "real" although lacking the frequency extremes and dynamics of the Wilson setup.

Overall, I would have chosen the vintage system for smaller scale acoustic music at medium volume levels. The midrange just sounded right to me. But with orchestral music at realistic volumes, I would choose the modern room. Fortunately, I didn't have to choose (I forgot to bring my checkbook.....)

In my own system, I have a similar choice between modern speakers (Spendor SP-100) and homemade speakers using vintage Jensens and Altecs. Each speaker favors a different amplifier. On most days, I prefer the sound of the Jensen/Altec speakers using my single-ended 46 amps, as opposed to the Spendors using Emotive Audio Vita tube amps. But who knows, tonight I may prefer the Spendor/Emotive combination. In any case, I would certainly not dismiss vintage speakers as a group for being too colored or for any other reason. Some vintage speakers are capable of excellent sound by any measure.