Your Side by Side Experience With Best Vintage vs Newer Expensive Hi Tech Speakers

I work with the most modern of transducer I design loudspeakers have been doing so for over 25 years. I sort out designs for other manufacturers as well as design transducers. Many products on the market have a bit of me in them. I also collect and restore vintage. I became interested in vintage designs as my knowledge of loudspeaker design grew and I read researched much of what the talented designers of the past wrote or created again much of this is still in use in audiophile products. When I started collecting vintage designs I looked for the best of what the past offered never expecting much beyond that it was cool and interesting expecting that it could never be a equal to my audiophile systems. But I found the opposite many of the best loudspeaker designs of the past were better or equal to modern offering and some with just  a few modern upgrades are SOTA today. Some offer levels of performance unavailable to audiophiles buying only new designs. Sure if wanting a bookshelf sized loudspeaker you may not find what you like in vintage but if you can handle 12-15 inch woofers than give it a try buy right and if you dont like you can break even or even profit on resale. Still its not all vintage is great its some vintage is and honestly most all will need a few modern updates if expecting SOTA.

Michael Green, you've got my interest. I'm here to learn and confess my ignorance of the "tuning" you speak of and no idea what the "recorded code" is. I am teachable though, so bring it on. 
When you said tuning I thought of my 5 band built in equalizer on my Mac 6200 integrated amp. I use it often, very often, because I can "tune" a recording to what sounds best to my ears. Mood affects my turning of those dials as sometimes I want a different sound. If I want more sizzle from the cymbals, I can get it. Mood for more bottom end, I got it. I'm not an always "neutral" guy. It may not be how the guys mixing it in the studio intended, but hey, it's my gig in my listening area. I'm sure some would say I'm not a purist, but you listen to what makes you happy. Like Popeye said, "I am who's I am".