Old vs. New

I do not want categorically dismiss quality vintage equipment but a significant part is bias based on long-term adaptation to old equipment.

Kal

THe mystique of old stuff is strong.
Some folks just like it better. Others hear what the new stuff offers and want that more.
To each his own.
The one way i would describe old stuff is it has a warmer, romantic sounnd. Not very clear, nor pristine, but it has the belly of the beast in it, and sounds wonderful to some.
Then modern gear is clearer, have great response, true to the musical imput. but it may (and in fact probably does not) not have that warm glow.
So some folks like the new, some the old.

The best comparison IMO is the change in Audio Research from the warmish sound os the Sp-10 to the clear sound osf the later models. Some folks say the last good ARC product was the Sp-10. Other are glad they changed to being clearer.
Plenty of equipment makers have been making strides in clarity and performance, and the old soft warm sound is gone.
If you like the old sound, you have plenty of company, and plenty of stuff to buy that still is like that used.
I am in the 'modern sound' camp. And thought when i auditioned some MAC stuff it was right off just old fashioned sounding, and no way do i want it. So I bought Bryston.

"A warmer, romantic sounnd. Not very clear, nor pristine" - this is a very broad generalization. Take something like ProAc Response 2 for example. They are 22 years old now, and still sound good. As any mid-hight price monitor in the market today I would say. There are a lot of examples like this. I feel that this warm, romantic sound idea is a big misconception. I would hardly call TDL Studio 4 warm and romantic sounding ;o)

IMO opinion speakers in particular are much better today than days of old. Remember those super wide, shallow depth kabuke speakers in 70s &80s? There were ofcourse good models from AR and others but 95% of them deserve their place in garages all across the world.....they were not that great. Amps, tuners, tables are to some degree a different story but I am a modern audio guy for sure.

I think it depends on the component. For my money, speakers have not "improved" in the last 20 years or so. I'll hold my KEF 107/2s, or Quad ESL 63s against anything I've heard under $10k since their introductions. However some components have improved... especially if you go back 30+ years. Turntables for example, IMO there are more very good tables available now than during the seventies - the heyday of vinyl! Although I'm not a nut for high end interconnects, I have to admit those too have improved a lot. In general, I think the improvements since the mid eighties have been much smaller than those made in the twenty years before that. One area that has "improved" (if you can call it that), is in the VERY high end of the market... there I hear things I never heard before, but unfortunately $20k+ speakers & comparably pricy electronics are way off my radar, so irrelevant for me.I still love listening to the latest products, but I don't find too many major components pulling at me enough to change, as long as the "old stuff" is still performing as it should.

Cliff