Pretty much all audio equipment falls into this as well. A vintage marantz stereo is going to sound better than nearly anything on the floor at best buy today, and if something goes wrong you either pop in a new part and take the thing to someone who can solder a wire and read a schematic.
Unlike a modern stereo that's a hunk of junk if a piece of critical plastic snaps in half or a cheap quality solder on the silicon board cracks out of warranty, not to mention the sound quality.
But how does the "vintage marantz" sound compared to something you can buy with, say, an hour's research with an internet search engine? Including price?
I don't know the answer to that. But I do know from experience that while your average $15 headbuds are total, absolute, utter garbage, that if you do your research there are $15 headbuds that sound pretty good. They may not be $100+ quality headphones, but for something that fits in my pocket they're quite credible. Don't just buy whatever one has finagled their way into Best Buy or the checkout counter at your grocery store, but that's not necessarily everything the market has to offer.
> But how does the "vintage marantz" sound compared to something you can buy with, say, an hour's research with an internet search engine? Including price?
Considerably better in the sub $300 range, and depends at the $600+ range. I'd personally go with the Marantz still, but I'd want to do some serious a/b testing.
