What to expect, modern speakers with vintage gear?

i believe you are primarily hearing the difference in the QUALITY of the speakers, not in their age

the levinson gear of the vintage you own were very high quality pieces with a clear crisp powerful sound... with perhaps just a trace of solid state haze and sizzle that can be heard on excellent speakers with very revealing high frequency transducers

if you change electronics to other solid state electronics, pay attention to their sonic profile (as much or more than their age)

I’ve had three vintage amps (Marantz, Pioneer, Denon) for a few years.  Last year I wanted to try some modern speakers as well, so, I connected my 4 ohm rated recently recapped Denon amp to Martin Logan 20i floor standers - and now I have 2 vintage amps.  (The Denon almost caught fire as soon as I turned it on - without even playing any music. I had to recycle it as it was too expensive to fix)

So for my Pioneer I ended up getting period correct HPM-100. Which turned out to be a much better match than I expected.

Now my Marantz - fully recapped and last serviced two months ago - 3 weeks ago right channel stopped working after connecting to one year old 6 ohm bookshelves.

So in summary:

1. I’m stupid.

2. It’s cheaper in the long run to buy a $10k amp and $15k speakers than keep doing what I’m doing.

3. Don’t mix vintage electronics and modern speakers- results are unpredictable.

Jeez, that is an ordeal!  Thanks for sharing and the words of caution.

warnings aside, let’s please not confuse apples and oranges

there is vintage gear and there is modern gear that is a perhaps a decade plus old

it is stupid to use a marantz 8b to drive low impedance highly reactive modern floor standers like an eight driver pair of focal kantas at volume... yes the amp will have a heart attack, of course it will

just like back in the day you would never use a 300b tube amp to drive apogees...  so let’s not lose our bearings here

one of the most important aspects of being a knowledgeable audiophile is to understand the capabilities of amplifiers and the demands of speakers to be driven, that remains so true today, whether it be old or new gear

I'll just support your wish to keep your Levinson electronics and match new speakers to it.

You've got a small room, and I believe 23.5 will drive many modern speakers well.

Are you thinking about buying new speakers from a dealer ? If so, you might be able to arrange taking your electronics to the dealer's listening room.