Did the Old Receivers Sound Good?


Before the high end started, we had all these receivers and integrated amps from Pioneer, Kenwood, Sansui, Sherwood, etc., all with incredible specs.  Then somehow we decided that specs didn't matter and we started moving to the more esoteric stuff from Ampzilla, Krell and whoever, but the specs were not as good.  My question is - Did the old Japanese stuff with the great specs sound better? I don't remember.  I'm asking because many seem to be moving back to the "specs are everything" mindset and I was thinking about all that old stuff with so many zeros to the right of the decimal point. 

chayro

Not able to do a refurbishing but it looks so good I’ll still keep it… thanks though 

I have some Boston acoustics T1000 great speakers! I've heard good things about the Advent 300. 

I still have Advent Loud speakers. Not accurate, look nice sound good 

Henry Kloss was a class act! 

I sold off all of my former mid to late 70s Sansui and Marantz units. A few years back thought I missed it. Went and bought a few Sansui and Marantz receivers, got them checked, aligned, ran them for a few months. Nice looking, fun to retry for a minute. Reality set in - those were good old memories. Did not sound nearly as good as I had recalled. Re-Sold to next the next happy vintage owner.

Just had my 1978 Pioneer SX-1280 recapped.  The amount of headroom this has for normal listening can certainly be matched today, however there is a warmth that It has that many spend $$$ searching for in a modern amp.  Upside, a fully restored SX-1280 is glorious.  Downside, It is like a classic car, It still has a propensity to need attention.  ✌🏻