Is Vintage Gear Really Better?

Vintage. In terms of pro audio gear and music instruments, the word “vintage” means something of high quality, especially something from the past or characteristic of the best period of a person’s or company’s work. (In other fields, these pieces might be called antiques.) Whether vintage items are mics, outboard gear, guitars, basses, drums, or whatever, they are highly desirable because of (a) the sound, (b) the finish, (c) the craftsmanship, (d) the age, or (e) the provenance (who played or used them). What makes a guitar worth $500,000? If you can prove that it was played/owned by a legendary guitarist, that will do it. Does that $500,000 guitar play any better than another similar guitar? Maybe not, but it has a story, and that’s part of what makes it so valuable. A Shure SM7B may be a good mic with fair market value, unless it’s the SM7B that Michael Jackson used to record his vocals for Thriller. Then it’s worth lots more.
Is Older Gear Always Better?
There’s a certain panache, a je ne sais quoi (appealing character that can’t be described), that accompanies vintage gear. But is that character so unique and distinctive that it can’t be replicated? Or is it just an “aura” that we ascribe to certain old instruments and pieces of gear? More importantly, can we accomplish the same sounds and tasks with modern gear?
There’s no denying that there will only ever be one Peter Frampton “Phenix” 1954 Les Paul Custom or Eddie Van Halen Frankenstein or homemade guitar from Brian May. But you can get collectible re-creations (replicas) of those guitars that are impossible or nearly impossible to tell from the original. And knowing whether you’re looking at a vintage guitar or a “relic” (made to look like an older, heavily used and abused instrument) can be extremely difficult.

An original Telefunken ELA M 251E from the early 1960s.

When it comes to studio gear, does it make a sonic difference whether you’re singing into an original Telefunken ELA M 251E worth $25,000 or a faithful Telefunken ELA M 251E re-creation or maybe even a lesser-expensive clone? Does an original Pultec EQ sound better than an affordable Pultec copy? Will anyone other than you sitting in the recording studio be able to hear the difference? Is the difference truly audible between vintage and new?

The Telefunken Elektroakoustik ELA M 251E that is manufactured today.

Vintage Vs New
Old, new, used, vintage — there are lots of options. Let’s explore the advantages of each.
Vintage

Its value will likely never decrease.
It’s a desirable tool that has served for decades and will for decades more.
Its rarity increases desirability and price.
You’ll have bragging rights.
The gear may be associated with respected artists or recordings.

New

You don’t have to worry about maintenance, repair, and availability of replacement parts.
The gear is usually more rugged and reliable.
It’s replaceable.
It comes with a factory warranty.
You know the complete history of the item.
It will typically have a lower price.
The designer/builder is available for support and information.
It often has better specs and uses more current technology.
It may offer compatibility and features not found in older units.
It may be easier to use and more functional.

What about Vintage Mics?
Let’s consider mics. Vintage originals definitely have their place. Having a unique collectible not only has sonic advantages (many of them were built by hand and are truly one of a kind), but it can also have a psychological impact on the singer. If someone pulls out a $25,000 mic to record your vocals or guitar, then that’s something special! If you know you’re singing into the same mic that Dolly Parton, Frank Sinatra, Eric Clapton, or Aretha Franklin used when singing their biggest hits, how can you not be inspired? And that feeling of inspiration can come through in the performance.
Side-by-side Comparisons

One of the nice things about working at Sweetwater is being able to easily access lots of very nice gear, some of it affordable and some astronomical in price. I try to utilize that privilege and use my ears to evaluate products that many engineers may not have access to. I’ve had the chance to compare many re-creations of classic mics to the vintage originals side by side, and Sweetwater even posted videos that compare the sounds of several expensive vintage mics next to the Telefunken re-creations (U47, C12, 251) on the same singer and same performance. (See “Listen for Yourself” below.)
Recently I took an economical “clone” of a classic mic and put it head-to-head with a very expensive version of the same mic. The latter mic cost 12 times as much as the clone. Then I recorded a singer singing directly between them, equally off-axis to both. I recorded both tracks through the same interface, gain-matched, so that the two tracks were identical except for the sound of the mics, allowing me to compare the two in a very precise way. Could I hear the difference between the two? Absolutely — there were differences as great as 2dB–5dB in certain critical frequency ranges. But were those differences worth $9,000? That depends on who you ask.
Then I went a step further. I put the intelligent Newfangled Audio EQuivocate 26-band auditory graphic EQ on the less expensive mic and used the more expensive mic in its sidechain and had it analyze the difference between the two. (EQuivocate can analyze the frequencies of two signals compared to each other and present a difference EQ curve.) That resulting display showed me the precise difference in frequency content between the two mics, accurate to 0.1dB. The results were not surprising and confirmed what my ears had told me. Then — and here’s where it gets really interesting — I applied the compensating EQ to the clone mic (thereby matching the levels of the individual frequencies between the two) and listened and compared that result.

Was there still a sonic difference? I would offer a qualified “yes” — qualified in that I’ve personally spent 40 years in some of Nashville’s finest studios listening to hundreds of mics of all prices and vintages and have trained my ears to hear the tiniest differences among them. For an engineer or musician with less experience and less ear training, the differences between the two might be indiscernible. And by the time you put either one in a complex mix of instruments, with reverb and effects and compression and EQ, and then master that mix and distribute it, would anyone be able to tell the difference? That’s a call that each engineer will have to make on their own. But I was startled by how similar I could make the two sound. Honestly either was capable of acceptable, even marvelous, results.
Ears Not Gear
For years my motto has been — and any “vintage” engineer will tell you the same thing — “It’s the ears, not the gear.” I think I could make a great record with just about any mic. Or with a $30,000 tube compressor — or not. Or with a $6,000 EQ — or not. The truth is, regardless of the age and provenance of the mic/EQ/guitar/amp, the resulting sound is in the hands of the engineer or the player. So, grab the tool you can afford and work your ears off to get the results you want. And if you are successful with what you have, then you can buy better and more expensive tools.
So go make music and hone your skills right now.

Listen for Yourself
Here at Sweetwater I get to compare lots of equipment and share those comparisons with you. Check out these links for a few vintage versus new microphone comparisons. How much difference do you hear?

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