If everything is so much better, then why am I discovering recordings on vinyl from the 1950s that sound so good? I guess part of this was the performers..maybe a part was limited technology demanded a simpler recording setup. Of course, technically these recordings might not be great. Perhaps, the noise level was higher and frequency response more limited than modern recordings. Of course, modern secret sauce makes the modern vinyl quieter and years of competition in a free market has naturally resulted in a better mix of products that few can afford. Streaming has brought more music to more people than ever before. Perhaps, this is the greatest achievement....mp3..Yikes!
We Can Make Classic Cars Outperform Today's "SuperCars": Why Not Vintage Audio?
If you spent $2M on a modern "Supercar", you’d arrive at the end of a quarter mile 2 football fields behind the quickest highly-modified "street legal" cars from the muscle car era. You could show up at an Autocross event in your late model "track ready" sports sedan, and be embarrassed by a lady pushing a 1986 Monte Carlo between the cones.
There’s a lot of resources and talent in the automotive aftermarket. Many of the brightest minds earned weekly paychecks in their "past lives" at major auto manufacturers. There are various disciplines involved including complete engine and drive train replacements, serious add-on/mods to existing components, bigger/better brakes, track-ready suspensions, etc. They can even slide a complete new high-performance rolling chassis underneath popular models.
So, why not vintage audio? Well, we do dip our toes into this a bit. There are popular speaker crossover replacements for the DYI crowd. But, these fall sonically short of their contemporary "high end" counterparts. The automotive equivalent of replacing a 2 BBL carb on a cast iron manifold with a 4 BBL carb on a cast iron manifold -- while keeping the original single exhaust system intact. We can do simple mods to improve the sonics -- like upgrading an original power cord that you wouldn’t want to use on a 2-splice toaster, much less a high-current amplifier. The really smart guys need to come to the rescue for true audiophile grade solutions.
Understandably there has to be a "high give a s--- factor" related to this. The speed parts industry is fueled by a wildly enthusiastic crowd while vintage audio owners are, like: "whatever". So, the chances of a superb $5k amp/preamp module that drops into a Marantz 1060 chassis and slays any modern gear near it’s price point may not be coming to a town near you anytime soon.
I think this can be incremental if we put our minds and wallets to it. You "car guys" know there are 3 basic types of collector cars. "Showroom stock" represents as close as possible the vehicle as it rolled off the assembly line. "Personalized" generally follows a stock appearance with performance and cosmetic improvements. Generally speaking, the car can be reverted to showroom stock at some point the future. All the original parts are carefully cataloged and placed in safe storage. "Modified" has the appearance of a race car, and performs like one. Often modifications to metal are performed, and in some cases there’s no going back. We can follow similar guidelines as well. We understand the motivation to keep things "stock". We can also understand the audiophiles that love their vintage gear would be open to the concept of a significantly better listening experience while maintaining a stock appearance and functionality. Chopping up an Auburn is a really bad idea. But, upgrading the input terminals on an integrated amplifier may be highly palatable for those cherished collectables.
I also get it that the ROI would be questionable. An amp that has a current market value of $2k with $5k worth of mods might still be worth $2k -- or less.
What say you?
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Fastest Car is a Netflix original series refutes that assumption. (Spoiler) Not only did the supercar beat the vintage, the driver just pushed the launch button, put his foot to the floor and watched pro drivers in his mirror. The vintage cars were also more temperamental, required teams of mechanics to keep them running and aesthetically challenged. Not only that but the super car can drive the twisty road home with no issues. My other question is why would you autocross a "sport sedan"? How does the Malibu compete with the Lotus? So how does that relate to audio? Keeping a 40 year old SUMO Class A amp in peak condition isn't for the faint of heart. The simplicity of of a Western Electric 300B amplifier is appealing but can it really compete with some of the cost no object amps of today? This also applies to turntables and cartridges and even speakers. Altec VOTTs may be the coolest thing out there (my wife doesn't agree) but there are better sounding speakers. I personally would choose vintage over the new but I'm not deluded enough to think it's the best available.
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Supercars can't compete at all with many purpose built drag cars. |
I would really have to disagree with the OP's assertion. There are many classic old horn and direct radiating speaker systems of old that have had elaborate, and more acoustically inert cabinets designed and built to update them, and as you said, many have benefitted from newer crossover designs as well as stand isolation. I think that it's the same with classic electronics, that is, if the owner isn't afraid of destroying the "collector value" of the piece. I personally upgraded or replaced most of the important parts of my McIntosh 2105 amp, including better input jacks and modern WBT speaker terminals, and it sounds better than several other amps that I've tried. I'm sure that many other enthusiasts spend much more extreme time and effort in getting the maximum performance from their well-loved classics. |
@bigtwin Okay, I’ll see if I can save a little crediblity here. Tom Bailey’s "street legal" ’69 Camaro ran a best of 6.73 @ 210.83 MPH in the 1/4 mile last year at Hot Rod’s Drag Week, and he drove the car home. The Bugatti Chiron runs a (very impressive) 9.4 @ 158 MPH in the same distance. Using the 1/4 mile to 1/8 calculator, the Camaro clicked off 4.2 seconds @ 160 MPH at the 1/8th mile mark compared to the Bugatti’s 5.9 @ 128 MPH. This puts the Camaro a minimum of 1.7 seconds ahead when the Bugatti reached this point. Calculating the speed and distance of the Camaro at 160 MPH, that’s approximately 250 feet per second x 1.7 seconds or 425 feet ahead at the half way point. This is a conservative number based on the fact that when the Bugatti reached this point the Camaro would have been traveling much faster than it did at the 1/8 mile mark. At the 1/4 mark, the Camaro was traveling 210.83 MPH or about 316.25 feet per second. Approximately the length of a football field every second. The Camaro reached the 1/4 mile mark less than one second after the Bugatti reached the 1/8 mile mark. Therefore, it appears that a "2 football field lead" is a plausible claim. I might be a few centimeters off, but I think the estimate is pretty close. Hope that helps? |
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