Did the Old Receivers Sound Good?

Worked in a couple of stores in the 70's that sold a wide selection of receivers from most of the "hot" electronics companies of the day. There were definite levels of quality in build and also in sound between brands. It wasn't all that difficult to pick out certain brands in blind tests on a pretty consistent basis. I am not into calling out the weak sisters (we thought) of the day. I recently bought a really nice oldie from my personal favorite line of the day. Always loved the look and performance from back then. The look is still great but performance wise it has lost a lot of its shine. I still love the look.

Selling audio in the 70’s and early 80’s, I went through a lot of equipment for my personal system.  The best receiver I ever owned was a Kenwood KR9400.  It was a beast but also sounded excellent.  I was driving a pair of Rectilinear 7 tower speakers, around $800.00 a pair with a Thorens TD 125AB Mark II turntable and a Shure V15 type III cartridge.  I also had the Advent  cassette deck which was a rebranded Wollensack (3M) deck.  I have vivid memories of the sound of that system which was all good.  Like a dope, I sold it when the next latest and greatest thing came along. It took a long time but I finally learned my lesson. 

I have all marantz vintage separates, recapped vs recapped marantz receivers. Marantz 15,16,250,500 amp with marantz 7t, 7c, 33, 3300 all sound better then the 22xx series. 

Marantz 18 receiver can sound very good, marantz 15 and 7t and marantz 20 in one.

depends... I gave up on the "vintages" from the 1970s after I did some serious A/B testing vs. the newer little Marantz nr1200 amp and that little Marantz blew 'em all away (including the vintage Marantz)

that said, I have used an Onkyo Integra receiver from 1986 with excellent results for years... tx88 

also, my totl Pioneer Elite receiver from 1999 sounds rich, deep, gorgeous

Do any members out there have a vintage stereo shop. that way we could compare old equipment versus new equipment, head to head in the same room on the same speakers. I would like to hear the results of this if somebody out there can do this for us please. I also have a question the modern equipment does have room correction which is going to give it an advantage, but is there a way to add correction to older equipment like that? I would also like to see a comparison of old tube equipment versus new to equipment and old transistor equipment versus new and just find out which is the best. Hey, this is a great subject, way to go. Very interesting.