vintage versus modern speakers

No contest vintage a joke now.

My main speakers are B&W N801, up until recently I also had a pair of Yamaha 1000M speakers, 33 years old. Of course I prefer the N801 speakers, but are they worth nearly 10X the price of the Yamaha's? Probably not. The Yamaha speakers have a unique, very revealing sound.

I can still remember hearing a pair of Klipschorn speakers at a HiFi show 35 years ago, they sounded truly amazing, the most dynamic speakers I have ever heard. Similarly, as one poster commented, JBL L100 speakers still sound great on rock music.

So in answer to your question, there are some amazing sounding vintage speakers still available. At the end of the day it is all down to personal preference.

any modern "artisanal" brand of speakers that might be worth looking at? especially made in the US ?
I heard of ZU....Thoughts?

That's all depends on your amp.
Your amp will determine what you should be considering.

Rockanroller- There are plenty of modern "artisanal" U.S. speaker makers. Here is a totally random list off the top of my head (well, not totally random, definitely skewed toward tube-friendly designs). Per Paraneer, if you give us an amp maker or amp type AND importantly a price range, the list can become more focused, but here are just a few:
Tyler
Green Mountain
Audiokinesis
Selah
Fritz
Merlin
Geddes
Beveridge
Audience
Ohm
Daedalus Audio
Devore Fidelity
Classic Audio Loudspeakers
Soundlab
KCS Custom Loudspeakers

if you step across the border to Canada, you can add quite a few more, two of which are Coincident and Ref 3A.

My apologies to all speaker builders I've left out. Others will fill in the blanks.