Dragging out a great old dinosaur

I had to send my beloved Cary V12R in for a tune up. As a substitute, while the big lug is out, I installed a twenty-two year-old Denon PMA 720 integrated amp that I bought new in 1990 or so from Purdue Radio in Montclair NJ, which later became Woodbridge Audio. I believe I paid about $350 for it, which was huge money for a college student at the time. Needless to say, nowadays I have speaker cables that cost considerably more than that. It's been playing in a meager bedroom system for the past ten years or so.

The amazing thing is that the old PMA actually acquits itself quite well. It doesn't have the liquidity, detail or dynamics that the tubes have, but the soundstage is suitably big and there's even a reasonable amount of depth. All in all, it sounds pretty darned good! It definitely put the law of diminishing returns into stark perspective.

Methinks it might be time to get some decent bookshelf speakers, better cables and a real CD player for the bedroom. Now that I recall how good this amp actually is, it'd be a shame not to use it properly.

Any similar experiences?