Did the Old Receivers Sound Good?

I’m still using my 1989 vintage NAD 7600 in my reference system. This was NAD’s best integrated amp and tuner put on the same chassis: 150 wpc into 8 ohms, 500 watts of dynamic power into 4 ohms for 200 milliseconds (ten times the typical duration for this spec). But specs are not the point, as has often been stated here. Sure that I could improve my system with newer amplification, I had a friend’s Primare A30.1 for several weeks: a dual mono design, award winning and with many faithful fans, made in Sweden in the twenty-teens. The NAD sounds more natural (more realistic instrumental timbre), creates a wider and deeper soundstage, and is better at specifying the location of instruments in space. Also tried another friend’s Outlaw; same result. The differences are very slight; both the Primare and the Outlaw sounded great (although I was disappointed with vinyl through the Outlaw, while the Primare had no phono circuit at all). But the NAD sounded just slightly better than these much newer units. The NAD has been checked out, but I’ve not had to re-cap it or in any other way modify it; even the hard-wired power cord is original. And the NAD, besides having a tuner, also has a first-rate RIAA equalized MM/MC phono stage, very useful "semi-parametric" tone controls, an indispensable powered balance control (you’d be surprised how important fine-tuning the balance is for maximizing the spatial effects), and other features not found on most "high-end" separates.

Richard Clark, Peter Aczel and others have done empirical studies confirming the relative unimportance of amplification, so long as one’s equipment is sufficiently powerful never to be driven into clipping. This should be taken into account here.

Finally, one might also note the astonishing sound quality of the earliest stereo recordings, made before consumer stereo was even available for purchase. Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra made recordings for RCA "Living Stereo" of Dvorak and Mussorgsky in 1957 (the Westrex disc cutter made the production of stereo records possible in 1958). Available now on SACD, these recordings rival anything made since for sound quality. That should tell you all you need to know in order to answer the OP’s question.

I think it's always difficult to compare old hifi equipment w/ new stuff for the obvious reason the former is "old" & probably does not sound as good as it once did. Who bought a receiver back then & didn't use it much & took great care of it? Not many! Besides that, some of the parts themselves wearing out or getting very noisy even if well cared for? 

That said, I find it interesting that the better quality tube based equipment from the 60's (Mac, HK, Marantz, Fisher etc.), if brought up to original specs as needed, can still mostly hold their own vs. much of today's stuff that isn't heroically sized / priced. Forget about amps or preamps that cost north of $10K. There simply was no amp or preamp that cost that much back then even adjusted for inflation assuming about the value of the dollar is about 1/10 what is was back in 1960.

If a company can't make a great sounding amp, pre amp, DAC etc. that is very reliable for $20K,  $50K,  $100K or whatever absurd amount beyond that, they're in the wrong business. You can buy a very nice car (BMW, Merceds, Audi, Lexus etc) w/ a half decent sound system for that which has WAY more complexity, parts costs, engineering & can get you to & from your favorite hifi store in style!

Crustycoot, yep, similar findings.

They had character. You knew it was a Marantz when you heard it, a Sansui, an Onkyo, a Kenwood, or a Mac. Each had its own sound. I don’t know if you can really compare that in todays terms…..they all sound more alike in my opinion. 

Try to remember that quality of electronics in the 50s & 60s was judged by Stereo Review and Audio on their specs. Even design engineers of the era were spec oriented. When subjective listening came along with Stereophile and TAS specs went out the window critically. They are both important but the overall sound of a system, not one component, is what matters. Did Macintosh get better when they went to solid state from tubes? Better specs but less great sound. I came to realize recently that my whole system had been voiced subconsciously around my Counterpoint hybrid amp. When it and it's tubed input died it created whole bag of worms from front end pieces to cables trying to restore synergy with the speakers (ML stats).1