1970's receivers and integrated amps...

Try the late seventies Sansui 65 Watt AU-517 or the 85 Watt AU-717 integrated amp models. They sound sweet. Luckily the AU-717 remains plentiful due to its huge popularity back in the day. Expect to pay $200 for either model in original, excellent and complete condition. The rack handles on these commonly go for $50 alone! See my system for one take on the vintage trip.

I have had (and still have) many, Yamaha, Pioneer, Sansui Luxman, Marantz, JVC and others. I love the vintage gear but am always ultimately disappointed in it's perfornce. My favorite was a Yamaha CA-810 Integrated updated by Randy Young, and it was easily outclassed by my new Onkyo A-9555.

Drken,

I think if you mate a vintage receiver up with an appropriate load for it, you will get a pleasing sound. These vintage pieces are old so you have to make sure they are operating as intended.

My reason for having a nice system is simply the pleasure it gives me. It's hard to define pleasure but like they say about pornography, you know it when you see it. In our cases, when we hear it. What pleases me might not do it for someone else. In addition to my vintage system, I have a Pass/Maggie system (SS + planar) and a tube/hi-eff (SET + custom monitor) system. They all give me pleasure when I listen to them.

Advice: Pick one you like the looks of, make sure it's operating properly and mate it to a nice 8 ohm speaker of decent efficiency. I favor the lower power ones from the late 60's and early 70's. Most importantly, have fun.

Frank......

I was an audio salesman from 1972-1986 so I do have first hand knoledge. I worked in a mom & pop audio store, Soundtrack Audio Systems in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. We sold Pioneer, Kenwood, Sony, Marantz and Sherwood. We also sold Mitsubishi high end and Accuphase when it was owned by Teac Corp. The early 70's equipment was very good, the later stuff, God-aweful. As I said before, way too much negative feedback.

I am not an audio snob by any means, It took me almost 40 years to get a system that sounds wonderful to my ears and that I can be proud of.

Bob

In the early 70s I worked in an audio store. We fixed, tested and sold receivers. We had a test bench and we gave each customer a hard copy of their unit's performance versus specifications for power output, THD and IM. We included a Polariod photo of a 20KHz square wave, to show the unit's bandwidth.

Many units we tested didn't make their specs. Exceptions were Harman-Kardon and Marantz, which often did noticeably better than spec, and Yamaha which just made it.

I quit working in audio before the end of the decade, but friends who didn't told me that by 1980, the poor-performing makes had gotten a lot better.