If we are speaking in terms of lo to mid-fi, then some of that gear might or might not be worth restoring..but lets not forget that the "golden era" of Hi-Fi is the 70's and 80's TOTL of equipment from that period is worth restoring and would give a ran for the money to some of the most esoteric TOTL gear of today. If anything, some of that knowledge of fine sound equipment building has been lost. Today's consumer prefers the Sonos, Bose and other mass production systems. Even in the remaining Audiophile community, the aluminum sculptures of today, seem to be sometimes more appreciated than the actual sound they are supposed to produce. The remaining manufacturers that are still focused on producing true hi-fi equipment are far few in between and their products are becoming increasingly expensive because of the continuous decrease of of quality audio grade components and the limited supply of talented engineers. There is simply very little room left for any economies of scale and the associated high cost of production follows.
Most of my vintage gear is comprised of separates from Sony, Yamaha and few others and mostly V-fet equipment. The type of sound a v-fet amplifier produces is sublime to my ears. I have many pieces of equipment from early and mid 70s that still run strong, but I restore all of my equipment anyways. Where I see areas of improvement of the original design, I am not holding back to from addressing them.
I only have three integrates. A Sony TAN-5650 (v-fet), Lo-D HA-500f (very rare v-fet) and a Pioneer A90 (A200 in Japan)
The two v-fet integrates I would consider mid-fi, but I will still restore at some point because they already sound good even unrestored.
The Pioneer A90 is a different beast. @200w/channel, with a massive PSU, copper plated chassis and a few other tricks underneath the otherwise plain-jane silver face, it is a silent sleeper with a fantastic build quality, even by today standards.... This I might restore just for the fun of working on it.
