Did the Old Receivers Sound Good?

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

We should add, at the same time some darn good sounding speakers were becoming affordable, AR turntable changed things, and the music content was revolutionary!!!