Pioneer House Sound from the 70s


For those of you who know the pioneer house sound of the 70s, what current amps/integrateds are closest to that sound (mainly of the receivers/integrateds of the late 70s)? I've got a friend who says he's found it in cambridge audio (no insult or compliment intended) but I don't hear it. What say you????
jckonicek
Definitely pick up an original in good condition. There are shops on the web that refurbish these vintage units and sell them for reasonable cost.

BTW, I agree, I still love the aesthetics of many of the better receivers of that time. They don't make them like that anymore.
Stanwal: This was the period of the great distortion race, when everyone wanted to add another zero to their distortion figures using massive amounts of feedback. Measured great, sound? not so much.
I second Stan's comments. Personally, I would avoid most solid state equipment from the 1970's (and 1960's), especially the brands that were made in Japan.

If you really want to come close to duplicating that sound, and if you can't find an original in excellent condition, I would look at inexpensive mass market brands, and focus on models that have extremely low THD (total harmonic distortion) specifications.

Regards,
-- Al
Sure there probably were some bad sounding products put out in the 1970s, but there were also some very good sounding products too. I'm thinking Luxman, Sansui, Kenwood, some Sonys, Yamaha, Hitachi (mosfets only), Marantz, Pioneer, Nikko and even some Toshibas are highly functional and decent sounding units. You can find these units for under $100 in any urban area. If you want to go crazy spend another $200-300 and have them recapped and aligned. Now pair them with an appropriately easy speaker load and while you won't get 21st century audiophile approved sound, you will get something quite listenable.

BTW, the tuner section on some of the receivers are better than all but the best modern designs.
Good point 61.The Golden Age of tuners you betcha,in a receiver or stand-alone.Just funning Tvad.My service went from 8-67-3-70.....got some nice Sansui stuff in Nam....cheers,Bob
I agree with Onhwy61. Some products sounded better than others not only within brands, but within models in a given brand and it isn't any different than it is today. The lower powered amplifiers usually sound better due to simpler designs and fewer parts count. System matching is as critical as ever and the '70s amplifiers were intended to be used with efficient speakers quite often using Alnico magnets.