Dig it! Are Vintage Pedals Actually Better Than New Pedals?

I prefer vintage voiced at reasonable prices over vintage aged at inflated prices. But, YouTube is not the place to experience subtle differences between gear. Bottom line, nobody is going to notice the little differences in a band mix.
 
If they are can most people who have been to a bunch of rock shows hear well enough to tell the difference?
Perhaps indirectly if it makes the artist feel better about their setup and therefore play better. But I doubt many fans care about guitar pedals.
 
I watched the CE-2 bit (as I have one) and his final thoughts section and I found he came to the same conclusion I jumped to when I read the thread title; no, objectively vintage is not better when it comes to pedals.

Better tech, better quality control, 40/50 years of design refinement, etc all means that a new pedal should be better in at least some way, be that reliability, versatility, lower noise level, whatever..

Doesn't mean that there aren't great vintage pedals out there, that perfectly fit someone's exact needs though and so that might be better for their particular application.

I got my CE-2 for £10 back in 1993. It does what I need and sits on my acoustic board. If/when it dies, I'd find a cheap modern clone rather than buy another on the vintage market as I wouldn't be able to afford it. If I could afford one, I'd probably buy the modern Waza instead anyway. YMMV.
 
Back in the heyday of pedals now considered vintage I was way to broke to buy a name brand guitar and amp much less pedals. I was proud to own the cheapest guitar in the Carvin catalog and a used Peavey. Only effect I had was a standard Cry Baby. Then when I got some money I bought a Matin and left that stuff in the closet for 2-3 decades.
I didn’t start back the elec guitar journey until the mid 2000s and was never interested in old pedals because I was never nostalgic about them in the first place. I’m kinda the same way about old guitars. Plenty of em that I appreciate but not enough to go down the collector rabbit hole.
 
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