Can a vintage piece over 40 years old be Highend

the age dont really matter it's how the gear was built to begin with,i actually prefer vintage speakers over most newer model's,i think speaker builder's/designer's have lost their way in the last 20 year's or so.

Bought some small Electro-voice spks. for my dad which were made in the 60's and I was suprised to hear how good they sounded. The ADS L-500's from the 70's are a fantastic 2-way spk. I remember the Braun loudspeakers. Sold audio equip. many yrs. ago and I remember the Braun's were superb sounding.

Humm, Quad ESL57's and 63's can be some of the most pleasing speakers I've ever hear when used within their limitations. I guess that makes them high-end, even by todays standards.

Enjoy,

TIC

If it was designed well to begin with (as my HK 730 was), upgrading the caps, transistors and wiring with high quality parts is something many reputable techs do. An LP12 feeds the Hk. There's nothing I've heard recently (that didn't cost a bazillion dollars) I'd trade it for. So much of the "accurate" sound is also dry, analytical and unmusical. Color me vintage.

Absolutely; many audiophiles are still using the older gear (the old Marantz 9 comes to mind). I've been told that the "iron" in the older tube gear is of a much higher quality than what is being used nowadays. The only thing that an older piece may need though is to have the capacitors replaced in the power supply. I disconnected the old leaky caps on my Marantz 8 and replaced them with new 100mF 450V electrolytic caps run in series; made a tremendous sonic improvement.