Amir and Blind Testing

@chayro We had tons of equipment back in the 70s with the lowest measurable distortion possible. One of the founding principles of high end audio was to prioritize sound over specs.

Perhaps (I thought it was more like the early 80s, and as always I am happy to be corrected), but I suspect that technology and knowledge has advanced since then to accommodate such characteristics in general without the pain of fingernails on blackboards.

edit - folk who have amps from the 70s may recall, for example, amps such as Marantz, Sansui and many others being capacitor coupled. I’d like to see those (refurbished, of course) put over the measuring bench.

@noske - as I recall, the Japanese receivers were boasting incredible distortion specs in the 70s, but the high-end stuff started becoming more well known in the 80s. And by well known, I mean by a very small percentage of the population who were reading the audio critic and absolute sound. Remember, way back then, most everyone had a stereo setup in their living room flanking the TV, but the early high end stuff was relatively rare. 

@chayro OK, granted, I stand corrected. I didn’t know that. I wonder what kind of gear they used at discos?

Incidentally, I do notice from some pics here that some folk still do have their setups flanking the TV, perhaps for home theatre reasons.

@noske - there were tons of pro amps back then. I mean, Woodstock was in 1969, so they knew how to fill large venues with sound. Crown, QSC, Mac, some others I forgot. Bulletproof gear that could take the punishment of the road. 

Sdl4, for the record I had some Adcom amps that were designed with Nelson Pass involved and always thought they were excellent, not to mention reasonably priced. I had one for 20 years.