This topic is always the subject of great debate amongst my audio friends.I tend to straddle the fence when asked to state a preference between old and new gear.I love my Fishers to death and had a very hard time finding a newer reciever or amp that compares in terms of sonic pleasure.Sure,it does not do all things well,but the things it does well it does best.My modern gear has never failed to impress me and amps like the Wheatfield HA2 and RKV leave me in awe at times.I do think the Fisher has better bass than any tube amp I have heard,including the mighty RKV,but the quality of the bass seems to very tube dependant.Since I have been using the Sovtek 12AX7LPs tubes,the bass is just unreal.keep in mind that the Fisher 400 that was at the Chicago meet was 100% stock and had generic tubes(the Service Master tubes are all GE) and was not restored.It still sounded awesome.It has since undergone a complete restoration and NOS tube roll and sounds amazing in all ways.
When talking solid-state gear the choices are easier.I think modern solid-state gear is sonically superior but lacking in overall build quality.I own some old Marantz,Harmon Kardon,Sony,Pioneer,Mac and other solid-sate gear and most of it is great,but the best modern gear always outperforms it.
This also brings the subject of modern vs. vintage tube sound to the surface.This has been a raging debate as well.This requires us all to agree on a typical sonic signature of both modern and vinatge gear.I think the common perception is that the "vintage sound" is one of distortion or inaccuracies at the upper and lower frequency extremes and very nice midrange vocals and soundstage depth.The common perception of "modern" sounding tube gear is that they have a much more balanced overall presentation while maintaining or even improving on the midrange and soundstage.This is too easy.I have heard modern gear that sounded very vintage(Glass Audio amps come to mind) and vintage gear that sounds very modern(Harmon Kardon Citation amp) so this remains open for debate.What do you guys think?