Vintage synths in the current gear landscape

[Tchammosaur]

With so many replicas and newer affordable analogs, I'm wondering (a) what people think constitutes a vintage synth today (b) if/how people are using vintage synths in their setups, for fun or more serious production.

[commodorejohn]

I'm not gonna get too off in the weeds about what one wants to define as "vintage" and whether the window moves, but for myself, I started getting into hardware synthesizers right around the time the analog revival was really getting in gear, when there mostly weren't a pile of cheaper modern alternatives save for the MS-20 Mini, and practically everything else new was modular (which I didn't have the money for) or DIY (which I was only just starting to dabble with via SBC computer kits.) I was lucky enough to score a series of reasonable-ish deals on vintage gear that hadn't yet shot up, and later on when I had a better job and a higher salary I was finally able to pick up a couple of the pricier items that'd eluded me.

And now? Well, I've got it; why wouldn't I use it?