It is so true that my two vintage components bought at low price are top product, even compared to nowadays products and one of them is IRREPLEACABLE by anything at any price , and if it is repleacable i dont know by which TOP costlier headphones of today Susvara ? RAAL ? etc ...Because the two basic technology used were never used again his soundfield cannot be replicate by nowadays headphone so good or better they can be on some acoustic factor by their membrane refinement..
Sansui AU 607i alpha was top in 1978 ...not low fi nor mid fi ... TOP HI-FI at an affordable price, a concept which do not exist today because most companies are BIG corporations and are not runned by craftmanship ideals anymore, a concept which was the proposition to offer to the mass the TOP HIGH FI BEST at the lowest possible price with no big compromises as Sansui did Or as AKG did in 1978...And small companies of today with their craftmanship cannot afford the research budget to implement new technologies and new design in their second move at mass market price as in the Sansui alpha or in the AKG K340 specific cases which were not small companies at all in 1978 but not owned by Big corporations with no links to audio ...This era is gone forever...
Buying vintage was the only way to assemble a TOP system at 700 bucks for me.. i did it and with the headphone AKG K340 i stick the BIngo price ! ( my 9 others headphones were a disastrous frustrating experience compared to speakers/ dedicated room, because headphones are very difficult to be designed right acoustically more than speakers )
How do you know you arrived at the end line of high quality with an optimal ratio S.Q. /price , which is passed the minimal diminishing returns treshold ?
It is because upgrading is no more interesting and so easy to do without risk.....And especially because there is no sonic defects factors which is evident and a reason to do such upgrade... When you are completely in love and happy you dont change partners, the idea did not even cross your mind... 😊
But there is a caveat : old products must be repaired if not cleaned at least, there is a cost and a risk...
Not all vintages products are TOP compared to contemporary offers...Only few...
And i did 6 months of research full time to modify my Headphone and improve it to this level where it compete with anything...There exist two negative wwell known reviews of it because the two well known reviewers were unable to understand this new technology and how to use it and called it a mismatch between two drivers...😊... We must learn how to listen... It is not a free gift at all... I learned by tuning my room... Before i did not know anything at all..
Then sorry there is no easy path...
But money-wise in cost, Vintage may be interesting ... And sometimes more than interesting...
The labels High-fi , mid-fi, low-fi, is a mass market creation... Some companies in the past were selling top product at very high cost and in a second move were able to downsize the price at mass market price with compromise that were not too costly in sound quality... This did not exist todays, the Big corporations and small craftmanship small companies are not the pioneers in audio , the not big nor small companies of this golden era which were competing more for sonic qualities and innovations first and last as the means to dominate...
Perhaps there is exceptions today as Hifiman for headphone ?
Am i wrong ? i dont think so... but this is my correct or uninformed enough opinions.. 😁😊
I have to resist the urge to accumulate cheap vintage gear, it takes a lot of discipline. "Low-fi" is trap. You’re overspending for junk. Good gear doesn’t sell because people don’t know about it.