Vintage vs New

I love vintage speakers.  Problem is there are many things that can age in a speaker.  I worked for AR (Acoustic Research) in the mid 1970's.  I bought some 10pi speakers in 1980.  I pulled them out a few years back and brought them back to near new shape.  That cost around $500.00, more than I paid for the speakers.

They still sound great, still eat lots of power.  I gave them to a friend of mine to start building his system.

Another thing - Used speakers on eBay can be a great deal, for what they are.

Vintage has inherent issues with things wearing out. Electrolytic Filter caps for example do not last forever and need to be replaced. Contacts, relays, potentiometers, Lpads all oxidize over time and can cause problems. Some woofer surrounds deteriorate and have to be replaced. Unless you are willing to address ALL such issues rather that employing  a piecemeal approach, vintage is not going to work out in the long run in my opinion.

I thought that with millercarbon shilling for Tekton that we finally caught a break from his constant promoting of Synergistic Research.  I guess I was wrong...

" Maybe someone so sure there was great wire back then can name me the 1970's era power cord they would put up against a circa 1990's Synergistic Research Master Coupler? This should be good..."

Vintage will likely require some crossover parts replacement, but I'd say lots of current loudspeakers would benefit from same. One of greatest bang for buck upgrades is replacing common run of mill capacitors, resistors, inductors in crossovers.

There have been great strides in modern production film capacitors, resistors, inductors. Check out brands like Jupiter, Duelund, Jantzen, Audyn, Miflex, Mundorf. Could go on and on. You can 'tune' speakers to individual preference with judicious choice of components. My present Klipschorns most definitely don't sound like any stock Klipschorn. The necessity of replacing certain crossover parts, and perhaps speaker surrounds as mentioned above, are an advantage of purchasing vintage, IMO. You've already opened up speaker, perfect chance to upgrade, no warranty issues.

Not willing to open up and mod or replace, stick to modern.