RE: What trade off in let off?
The newer bows and cams are much more efficent and store energy much better than the old bows and cams / wheels did. They will be much faster than the bows of 10 - 15 years ago. The newer bows are designed much better when it comes to reducing noise and vibration (paralell limbs, better metals, better limb materials, better string materials, etc...) than older bows were so you will probably experiance less noise and vibration.
A good example is while I was at the pro shop shooting the ither day. I have a Parker UL35 and the one other guy there shooting had a Bear bow about 10 years old. We just happend to be shooting the same Gold tip arrows. I was getting 276 fps @ 70 pounds he was getting 262 fps @ 80 pounds. My bow was much quieter also. We both had limb savers and string silencers installed as well as avtive stabilizers.