Did the Old Receivers Sound Good?

I sold off all of my former mid to late 70s Sansui and Marantz units. A few years back thought I missed it. Went and bought a few Sansui and Marantz receivers, got them checked, aligned, ran them for a few months. Nice looking, fun to retry for a minute. Reality set in - those were good old memories. Did not sound nearly as good as I had recalled. Re-Sold to next the next happy vintage owner.

Just had my 1978 Pioneer SX-1280 recapped.  The amount of headroom this has for normal listening can certainly be matched today, however there is a warmth that It has that many spend $$$ searching for in a modern amp.  Upside, a fully restored SX-1280 is glorious.  Downside, It is like a classic car, It still has a propensity to need attention.  ✌🏻

It was, after all, the Age of Radio.

I discovered that I had to go back thirty years and more to find a fine tuner.

And there are some gems among them.

The Tuner Information Center website (fmtunerinfo dot com) is a valuable resource.

Is there a fine tuner made today?

had sansei 7070 and 9090.

descent, the looks is what grabbed me. sounded good.

if you like it, USE IT.

who cares what people think. enjoy.

still use a  mass prod yam 90W receiver for recording LP to CD with software. all is fine.

I had major GAS in the 70s and 80s and went through all sorts of Japanese receivers and integrateds. Were they completely accurate in their reproduction? Most not, but most of them had big, warm, rich sound that was satisfying. Can't think of a better word. I worked at an audio store while in college and took home most anything I wanted. The bigger Pioneer receivers like the SX-1980 and the Sansui G-33000 were actually very good with huge power reserves but capable of pretty "articulate" reproduction. Problem with those was, even then, they were very expensive. An overlooked one in my opinion is the Sony STR-V7 which had a much more clinical sound. I still have a few pieces but, like most, use my more modern equipment these days. What I miss about those days is that the industry was healthier, big investment was put into new things (sometimes gimmicks), and new approaches were developed seemingly every month.