Did the Old Receivers Sound Good?

@bill_k

@elliottbnewcombjr

+1

I remember the spec wars… incredibly low distortion numbers for components that sounded terrible. I remember 70’s and 80’s Pioneer, Marantz, Yamaha, and Sansui… they do not hold a candle to high end equipment of the 80’s And 90’s let alone now. I owned / own some of that stuff. So much advancement has been made in better actual sound, ignoring specs it is incredible. It was a very dark time except for truly high end components… Threshold, Nakamichi, Audio Research… etc.

As a collector of ‘70’s integrated amplifier’s, I enjoy great pride of ownership from many pick-of-the-litter classics when expertly restored. It’s a blast finding speaker combinations that bring out their best.

Many components of this decade are well designed and built which easily lends itself to a quality rebuild including a Paul Hovenga modified Accuphase P-250 which is the daily driver of my Dynaudio Heritage Special loudspeakers.

The only receiver in my stash is a Marantz 2330 which is a sonic jewel with many loudspeakers. I also wouldn’t discard a Sansui G8000 after it had the Many Moons Audio treatment.

My guess it's like a 60's muscle car.  It was fun then and it's fun now.  And and VW GTI will outperform it in comfort in many ways (not all).

A month ago for the fun of I hooked up an old Adcom amp to my system - it was my friends and he had it for a while and in college it was my idea of audio bliss.

I hooked it up to my preamp and my speakers...it sound horrible.  It lacked the dynamics of my Moon amps - sound stage was smaller, bass was undefined and it was an experiment that lasted for 15 minutes.  And in college that amp with Boston Acoustics speakers was something I could and did listen to for hours.

Nostalgia always sounds better, until you listen to it.

@mikem 

+1 good one.