For Old Timers who experienced the "Golden Age" of Audio of the 60s and 70s.

BDP - yep.

I had one of the first Tympani 1a's, in 1973. What a speaker! Biamped with ARC crossover, modified ST-70's, and solid state monos. The Quad ESL's were just not big enough for me then, or now - so I have several copies of the new crop of Quads.

The new Quads need serious modding to sound their best, but when they do - they are no more musical than the ESL 57's!!!!! Another octave top and bottom, but no more musical. It's the electronics that have really shifted up, now that designers know how to use complementary push-pull pairs. And modern high end caps and resistors. And cartridges. Those Supex units were wonderful, but beside a modern higher end Koetsu?? Not so much.

My experience is that vintage equipment varies a great deal. 

For the most part, 40 to 50 year old turntables are rarely competitive, but there are some exceptions. 40-50 year old arms are almost always not with the postage to mail it to you, and forget about most 40-50 year old cartridges, though I would still grab a Shure V15 Type 3 with a modern stylus. 

I would not touch a 40 -50 year old preamp, but I think there were some phenomenal tuners 40-50 years ago. Speakers? with incredibly rare exception, I would pass on anything 40-50 years old.

To sum it up, I'll take a 301, with a modern arm and cartridge, a vintage Mac amp, modern pre, a Mac MR71 tuner, and modern speakers

Al, your 'todays cost' comparison does much toward relativity. There are vintage products that can be reconditioned that will play well against modern equipment at similar price point. Not saying I have experience with many of them, however I hold my Dynaco ST-70 as one of them, recognizing the limited power handling capabilities of this amp.  

Yup, I was there in the late 60s and early 70s during my late teen and early 20s years.  For members who hail from the Philly area, there was Music and Sound Limited (M&S) located in the Jenkintown and later the Willow Grove areas.  Remember Mel and Nel, ... the self-proclaimed musicians and inventors?? M&S carried many of the high end brands mentioned above.  In particular, I recall the Maggie Typany panels, the Infinity Servostatics and the Quad ESLs.  Of course, who could forget the early Crown and ARC lines.  

Unfortunately, I was too young and broke to actually buy any of the high-end stuff, but was an M&S groupie.  Was able to pick up some used Crown gear, Infinity 2000a speakers and a Thorens TT.  For what I had, I was in audio heaven.  But compared to my current rig, I think my old set-up sucked air.

@almarg , not sure I understand your comments that the "best of the best" from back then could still meaningfully compete with contemporary very good gear, especially in the speaker space.  I surmise that materials technology alone would put most modern speakers in a place that the old stuff couldn't touch.  

Thanks for the memories. Truly, ... youth is wasted on the young.

BIF

Hi Bruce (Bifwynne),

As I indicated, Western Electric speaker drivers from the 1930s, and to a somewhat lesser extent Tannoy speaker drivers from the subsequent several decades, often go for tens of thousands of dollars these days. I believe it is very possible to spend six figures creating a Western Electric-based pair of speakers, with custom built modern cabinets and modern crossover components (or perhaps active crossovers used with multiple amplifiers). I haven’t ever heard such a system, but based on multiple accounts I’ve heard and also read about over the years from audiophiles I consider to be particularly credible, and who have either done that or have heard such systems, I don’t doubt that such a system can provide performance commensurate with those kinds of prices.

During the 1990s I did own two different pairs of very large vintage Tannoy speakers from the 1960s, the drivers from which would probably go for upwards of $10K today. I was not particularly enamored of their performance, but my belief is that the reasons related to their cabinets and perhaps also to the condition of their crossover components.  That belief is reinforced by reports here and elsewhere of experiences of others I consider to be particularly credible.

As far as electronics is concerned, one of the best sounding amplifiers I have ever heard, at least when used with an easy to drive pair of speakers, was a pair of Marantz Two monoblocks, ca. 1960, which I owned for a time during the 1990s. I believe they would go for a bit more than $10K today. I also owned a pair of the legendary and even more valuable Marantz 9 monoblocks, btw, which in the case of the particular examples I had were outperformed by the Two’s.

And then there are the best of the vintage tube tuners, such as the Marantz 10B (I’ve owned two of them), and the REL Precedent I currently own. I haven’t heard any of the upper echelon models that Magnum Dynalab has produced in the last decade or so (I have heard some of their older models), but I would certainly be surprised if a 10B in top condition, or a Precedent in top condition together with the necessary external stereo multiplex adapter (the Precedent pre-dates the stereo era), would not be competitive with them in terms of both sensitivity and sound quality.

Best regards,
-- Al