Can a vintage piece over 40 years old be Highend

Over here in the UK they ran a car programme about the performance of old cars - a certain amount of money to buy an old italian sportscar - £10,000 if I rememeber correctly - so a Lamborghini, Alfa, and Ferrari of dubious vintages were selected (if I remember correctly).

Thedy then humiliated them in a series of performance tests. The overiding thought during this was that it didn't mater how slow they were, they sounded fabulous and they looked fabulous......yes, they broke, but who cares...

I'm sure the analogy crosses over!

Dmurfet, unfortunately your analogy does not 'cross over'. The performance gains claimed by present audio equipment is not nearly as great as the performance gains of automobiles. Apart from most speakers (Quads, Klipsch and a few others, excepted)and phono cartridges, vintage audio equipment is just as viable as present equipment.
Bob P.
PS. My BMW 2002tii, however, could still embarrass some current 'performance' cars!

"Can a vintage piece over 40 years old be Highend?"

I would certainly think so, provided that:

1) It was high end in the first place

2) It has been well maintained and is in pristine condition

3) The end user believes that it is "high end"

I STRONGLY agree with the notion expressed above that "high end" is a designation that should be used for PERFORMANCE, not price. The two tend to be related, but we all know that there are MANY exceptions to this "rule."

Also, I think that it's wise to remember that "newer" isn't always "better". The prototypical example for me at least is the legendary AR 9 speaker. (I never even got to hear it but remember that the AR 90 sounded great at the time, and the AR 9 was said to be even better). Other examples include one of the Parasound preamplifiers (I THINK it may be the PDL 2000, but am NOT certain of the model number) that is no longer made but is entirely class A and is still regarded by at least one of the more senior people at Parasound as the best preamp they ever made. Another example, with which I'll soon be getting my feet wet, is NOS tubes, or so I've been told.

Mdhoover,

I had heard the AR9 in the 80's and yes they were superb speakers. I also had the pleasure to listening to them very recently and my jaw dropped at the knowledge of what they were capable of. I am saying this is because when I first heard them I was not as knowledgeable as I am today about sound of different speaekers and my memory of them so long ago was faded.

I can also quote other examples like Magneplaner Tympani speakers which were produced long ago and still sound great. Tannoy Gold monitors, LS3/5a's, Nad 3020 amps etc etc.

Except for my Koetsu onyx, all of my equipment is between 30 (Futterman OTL3s, VPI HW 19 MK IV) and 60 (Altec 604Cs) years old. As another post pointed out, it’s good to have caps, etc replaced. About 5 years ago, I had all the caps in my amps, Beard P505 preamp and mastering lab crossovers replaced with Jensen audio grade caps. And the drivers have been re-coned with the Great Plains kit by Gabriel Sound in NJ.

Price is not the best measure of performance, Not is newness. Your ears are part of your “equipment”. No two people hear alike. Go with what sounds right to YOU. Use what others say for guidance only. In the end, trust your gut.