@astralprojection nah, I think your comment was valuable ... broadened my view. It in fact probably has been better in some cases with "old" equipment.
I'm drawing parallels to analog vs. digital / vinyl vs. CD in my head... --> How come that a vinyl, with an ever-so-slight crackle (and therefore actually "worse quality"), is more preferrable to my ears than a completely cracke-less CD or wave file?
And you have a point there with the "clean" sound. It may be too clean or "sterile". When it's too clean, it loses "human qualities", it loses its character to some extent.
The question that remains, is: would somebody who has "grown up" in that modern sound environment, find the old sound "outdated"?
So far we only have one answer and it rings true...