personally i used an old integrated Sony amp with equalizers, and depending on the source the sound was totally different, i have an album on CD, LP and OGG and of the 4 sources (OGG from the phone DAC or Bluetooth DAC) the Bluetooth DAC completely overpowers the +- 10 db of the equalizer, the LP and CD are pretty comparable, maybe a bit fuller on some louder part on the LP but not much, and the phone is a phone, so not great. i also have the album on tape but my deck is dead... well so now is the amp.
next step is an even older Radiola quadraphonic transistor amp that i am restoring slowly, maybe a bit faster now that the Sony has died...
all of that to say that if you are searching for the artist intent you will need to reproduce their exact setup from the source to the room they intended it to be played in, good luck with that, well if you listen to more than one artist
i guess a rule of thumb is that old amps were trying to distort as little as possible with their level of technology, new amps that uses old tech will actually go a bit overboard with distortion because it is what they search of that old tech.