[SET Man]

Hey!

    I've been pondering about of what can be labeled as "Vintage" in audio world. 

   I mean... at what point an audio component could be call vintage? Anything after the WWII to 1980s? And what about something that is made before the WWII? Are they antique?

   Is my pre of which now 10 years old made in 1996 a vintage? Or '90s vintage? Is my 1937 Philco AM radio an antique?

   So, what is vintage to you in this audio world?

Take care,
Buddy

[ZLS]

It is difficult to choose a specific stopping point without being arbitrary or at least appearing to be arbitrary.  I personally do not consider any transistor component to be vintage, but I fully recognize that distinction to be arbitrary. 
    Vintage starts with the first piece of electronic music reproducing equipment.  Antique is merely a subset of vintage. 
    As to your 1937 Philco Am radio I would simply refer to it as a treasure!

[JohnR]

Older than me = vintage.

I remember I sold a pair of amps from the 30's once. The buyer was disappointed that they didn't have rca plugs and speaker jacks on it.

[jimdgoulding]

Ponder on, dude.  I'm chiming in to share a wee bit of beauty and frustration regards an old MC step up device.  I own a Marcof PPA1.  It may even be the original battery powered step up device and maybe that would qualify as vintage.  Rare, anyway, I expect.  A week ago, one evening, I decide to dust it off.  Put in new batteries and it lit up.  S***, I'm gettin excited!  So, after a while, I put it in.  Couldn't hear a thing and I almost gave up but decided to crank the volume and there it was!  What I had forgotten was that when I bought it I was steppin up an MC using a full preamp.  Now, I'm using a line stage.  So, I could only get enough volume to hear a sweetness and clarity that made me wish.  Even with a high output design.  Damn!  Do I ever wish this tale had a happy ending.

[JimJ]

I consider anything made prior to the mid 1980's "vintage".

Around the '80s into the '90s it seems there's a shift in the mainstream, to smaller, lighter, cheaply-made components. "Vintage" equipment, to me, forgoes the plastic for metal