Vintage or modern?

[stiffy]

I was thinking of selling My Arcam amp and building a vintage set up, possibly with a Technics amp and tuner.

Is there any advantage to be had with vintage equipment over their modern equivalents? What about the type of sound quality you could expect? I realise their could be reliability issues due to the age of the items which is why I was leaning towards Technics.

Anyone have any thoughts or personal experience?

 

[Anonymous]

As far as I know, the newer the amplifier the better the comparative model in the past. (obviously not in all cases, but certainly most)

Again its all a matter of opinion - how does it sound to YOU....

 

[shado]

How far vintage did you want to go? Leak did some lovely valve amplifiers and I believe you can still get hold of them and they did matching Trough Line Tuners.

 

[rymidd]

if old hifi was any better they would make the same old stuff. but a hi end old amp should beat a modern budget model. not sure about the reliabity with modern stuff which has to use lead free solder which is more brittle. having said that i have never had a modern amp fail on me

 

[Anonymous]

The Quad 405 and 33 amps can be gutted out to various degrees to give you the best of both worlds; vintage amp with modern components sympathetic to the original design. For example, you can buy kits from Netaudio and the results are excellent value for money.

 

[the record spot]

Notwithstanding, and as you mention, the reliability issue which needn't necessarily kill the deal, vintage can be a good purchase. While my Sansui AU-717 is in the service shop again, its little brother the AU-217 is one of the best purchases I ever made. I'd recommend both heartily, as they're terrific amplifiers and typically underrated against more popular used models, so you get more for your money.

 

[dave_k]

Some vintage kit is really lovely looking too, and excellently finished...