I almost hate to say this, but I still have my first kit--a cb percussion made in Taiwan kit which is around 15 years old--and when I recently played it head to head against a friends' '66 Rogers kit the cb percussion sounded better. Rippled wrap, stickers from a punk phase, black spray paint from after the punk phase, original generic resonant heads, and terrible condition batter heads (not to mention it's been stored and played for a few years in the woodshop I work in, so it's a bit sawdusty...)
Before I get banned for such blasphemy, though, in Rogers defense my friend is not a drummer and therefore tuned to what the drum dial said and NOT what necessarily sounded good. I guess the point is that on both modern and vintage drum sets, a person can make a bad set sound great or a great set sound really bad. (Hopefully I can make my new (old) '59 Ludwig club dates proud...)
