Vintage Asylum

Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time.

Use this form to submit comments directly to the Asylum moderators for this forum. We're particularly interested in truly outstanding posts that might be added to our FAQs.
You may also use this form to provide feedback or to call attention to messages that may be in violation of our content rules.

You must login to use this feature.

Inmate Login

By default, logging in will set a session cookie that disappears when you close your browser. Clicking on the 'Remember my Moniker & Password' below will cause a permanent 'Login Cookie' to be set.

Moniker/Username: The Name that you picked or by default, your email. Forgot Moniker?	Examples "Rapper", "Bob W", "joe@aol.com".
Password:	Forgot Password?
	Remember my Moniker & Password ( What's this?)

If you don't have an Asylum Account, you can create one by clicking Here.

Our privacy policy can be reviewed by clicking Here.

Inmate Comments

From:
Your Email:
Subject:

Message Comments

Original Message

YES !

Posted by Ross on July 12, 2004 at 13:12:36:
Advances since the golden age have mostly been in the fields of parts quality and precision engineering to tighter tolerances.
Basic technology has not really advanced IMHO.
A good vintage amp, sensibly restored will sound as good as or better than a comparable new amp. Take a restored Heath W-5pr for example. One of the most natural sounding amps you will find. Many swear by the Marantz 8b or Mac MC-225 or 30pr. How about the Quad-II or the Leak TL-20 ? Many say a restored Hk CIT-2 is better than a new mega $ CJ or AR amp. A restored Dyna ST-70 will run ~$400-500. Can anyone show me a modern amp that delivers as much fun and sonic pleasure for the same price ?
The Marantz10b, Mac MR-67 or7, Fisher FM-100 or 200 are all great examples of SOTA vintage tuners. Modern SS tuners may be more sensitve, but do they really sound better ?
Modern preamps, phono cartridges and loudspeakers are areas where I think that current is better than vintage.
Current preamps have shorter signal paths and closer tolerance parts resulting in more accurate sonics.
Speakers have greatly benefited from improvements in materials technology allowing current drivers to go deeper, play louder and all with less distortion.
In phono cartridges, there is no comparison- modern materials and manufacturing technology makes golden age cartridges akin to the proverbial chizzled nail stylus.
Best,
Ross