Did the Old Receivers Sound Good?

The NAD 3020 I took back to my tiny apartment for a shoot-out in the mid 1970's truly sounded better than the Kenwood KW-70 receiver I'd been using for the previous several years. It didn't make one whit of difference that the NAD put out considerably less watts. It was a move that revitalized my audiophile tendencies, tendencies I'd put aside when girlfriends & dating entered my life.

By and large - No. I had Kenwood’s Rotel, I don’t remember them all. Never liked any of them. Or we wouldn’t have Hi- end would we? Tho for a relatively modest investment I currently get great sound. I wish I had some of the $ I spent back on that stuff as well. Between streaming and modern equipment good sound can be had pretty readily and very cost effectively. Around 10 K for normal people it can be done. Many will scoff. I would spend more if I had it.

I would agree with Russ69, based on what I know now.  Back in the late 60's and early 70's, I wanted to upgrade from FM radio to something better and knowing nothing better I fell upon Stereo Review. That magazine was filled with advertisements for receivers, not separates, so I purchased a Kenwood 5150 in 1972, a Dual 1215 turntable and KLH 17 speakers, all for $500..  I was happy with it until a used McIntosh MA 6200 integrated amp and a new Denon tuner became available. That's when the serious upgrading started.

I can't speak for other brands, but I owned several vintage Marantz receivers, and to me they sounded smooth and pleasing, if a little lacking in dynamics. That was a pretty good achievement for that time though, because a lot of the solid-state gear then was anything but smooth.

After having demo'd and sold thousands of "receivers" in a Retail environment  from the mid 70's to the end of the 80's (Technics, Toshiba, Rotel, Pioneer, Luxman, NAD,Telefunken, Phillips and more) ... My opinion is that they Did Not sound Great then, and the addition of 40 or 50 years has Not Done Anything to improve their "Good, but thin and unromantic" sound. High End separates, many integrated amps and custom equipment, generally (by a WIDE) margin, sounded better and represented a more accurate presentation of the intended sound.

The Golden Age receivers were often Attractive, Well Built and sported Great Specs.... but that all came at a cost due to the very competative nature of the Business and the pursuit of Great Numbers, not Great Sound.