Has anyone truly compared Vintage vs. Modern?

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.