Your Side by Side Experience With Best Vintage vs Newer Expensive Hi Tech Speakers

@michaelgreenaudio I want to thank you personally for your contributions to this hobby.

Years ago, component and ancillary changes in my second system yielded much less than the expected impact. After a while and many attempts to rectify the situation, I implemented my own version of your RoomTunes, made with burlap we sewed up stuffed with long-hair carded wool a local mill produced. The effect allowed the sound of the individual components and ancillaries changes to now come forward.

This allowed me to understand why price does not ultimately determine the system success. Folks often stress the importance of synergy in this vein, but the room and system setup therein prove crucial. Every one of us regularly hear systems made up of good components sound much better than systems composed of great (or more often, just more expensive) components set up / integrated less well.

Audiophiles fool themselves believing tone controls no longer exist in this hobby. Consider the countless dollars and discussion threads spent on the hopes for and sonic effect of changing whatever (loudspeaker, power / pre amplifier, tube buffer, CD player, turntable, cartridge) component, resistor / capacitor, vacuum tube, cable, isolation device, tweak, etc. in the quest toward the ultimate destination

Even though I had a good bit of loudspeaker building experience with my own / friends’ projects as well as my involvement with Fried, until I began building amplifiers, I didn’t understand the importance resistors play in the sonic presentation.

At one point, I had four amplifiers in front of me, three of which using the same circuitry, differing only only in their passive components, and two of which only in their resistors. The first was a classic Dynaco ST70 using the carbon composition resistors of the day. The second using carbon film resistors and modern capacitors, with the third identical apart from its metal film resistors. I built both of these amplifiers in the same time period. The fourth amplifier was a Dynaco ST80, produced in Japan, built to correct all the supposed flaws in the original; increased power supply capacity, Mullard long-tail pair (used by 99% of today’s push-pull tube amps and most of the Dynaco replacement / upgrade boards) driver stage, LED bias indicators, and (ironically) a triode / ultralinear switch.

The resistors themselves profoundly influenced the sound.

The original Dynaco had that amber colored, overly warm, lush sound normally equated with vintage gear. The same amplifier circuit with metal film resistors not only sounded like a modern amplifier with its clarity, neutrality, and openness, it possessed a level of both speed and liquidity most products with another zero or two in their price tags hope for.

Despite the marketing claims amplifier manufacturers have used over the past few decades about their innovations and ingenuity, when it comes to tube amplifiers, the circuits remain the same as those used in the 1950s. THE single most meaningful difference between a vintage and modern tube amplifier is the metal film resistors, and to a much lesser extent, capacitors.

The guitar industry knows this all too well. The demand for the vintage sound by the customers has led to both the much higher collectibility and pricing of the original amplifiers, the reintroduction of those same products, at a much higher price point to boot, and the tuners in every town folks bring their amps in to up their tone. Number one way to get that vintage tone, carbon composition resistors.

And if anyone cared...the Dynaco with the carbon film resistors sounded less than noteworthy, possessing neither the charm some treasure vintage products for, nor the modern sound that I prefer. The ST80 proved to me how the simplicity of the concertina phase splitter produces a special sound the vast majority of today’s push-pull tube amplifiers simply do not. With few exceptions, high-end audio amplifier designers have rejected this topology over the years using the argument of lacking the gain the long-tail pair produces. However, since many here like to quote Nelson Pass these days in regard to our components producing more gain than we can make use of, I’m now going to begin claiming this an advantage for the concertina. And for what it’s worth, though the sound of the ST80 fell far short of the original as all of these "improved designs" do in my experience, I did appreciate the triode switch even if it conflicts with Dynaco’s actual raison d’etre of ultralinear operation

@vinny55 you bring up an excellent point on the Scott amplifiers.

We’ve seen example after example over the years of well-meaning techs going through a vintage component, and replacing the carbon composition resistors with modern, stable, reliable, tighter tolerance parts leaving the owner feeling utterly disappointed with what they wind up with. Fortunately, so many have come to the realization that despite all their shortcomings, for the owner of a vintage piece, in order to maintain its original character it’s best to use the same sort of parts they were built with.

As for modern audiophile components, unlike the guitar world, unless someone truly aims for that sort of vintage sound and feel, I don’t see any reason one would consider carbon composition resistors.

I’m less dogmatic in terms of brands of each type of resistor, as they obviously vary to a far smaller degree than moving from type to type. There’s a truly excellent thread in the "Tech Talk" section on this topic, though it focuses on folks experience with the nth degree in chasing the best of the best, and until one reaches that high a plane, they don’t need to look beyond the mainstream products offered by the major sellers. However, you may find it curious that excellent film resistors from the likes of Vishay, Dale, CTC, etc. can cost a few cents where carbon composition resistors could cost a buck or three.

There are a few notable people attached to each product or manufacturer of vintage gear.  If I were you or your friend needing my vintage component gone over, I would seek out the forums dedicated to that particular product, as those individuals will surely show up there or get talked up by the devotees.  As an aside, if you feel at all comfortable working around these things, I encourage you to become your own tech.  That's the way you really maximize what you have, as you will become intimately knowledgeable about it by the combination of finding a group of people who also are on the journey with the component and eager to share their experiences and perspectives and lessons learned, and actually putting your head down and working through the piece yourself, not to mention also being the cheapest way