Really? I went through a very large number of rooms at RMAF and wasn't impressed until I got to the McIntosh / Sonus Fabre room. This was one of the first rooms where I felt "there was something special". It was very excellent sounding, but still too laid back for my own personal preference (which is a characteristic of McIntosh).
What brand was better than it is today?
What are the brands of speakers or components that were once significantly better than they are today? Polk, Boston Acoustics, Bose? Keep them coming and explain why!!!
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I have a half dozen Sherwood 7100/7100A, Yamaha CR620 receivers that work just fine. I suspect current electronic equipment built to mid-fi standards should last a long time as well. The parts quality have improved once you have electronics retailing for $2500+. Cheapo video/audio equipment probably not. |
I’d give a nod to the old Sherwood and Fisher electronics, generally but not all tubes. I still have some of my older Sansui equipment, AU-111 tube amp, TU-9900 tuner, SR-929 turntable still making good music with a little TLC once in a while. I wouldn’t expect 50+ years of service from today’s offerings. |
Nostalgia has power. 40+ years of audio and "moments" of great audio stick in my mind...these include many of the manufacturers mentioned above as I wandered about the US audio salons of yore, and many living rooms and now some dedicated sound rooms of today. Sheer musicality did live in some of those old systems striking emotions and wonder...of what I'd experienced up until then. That said, if someone let me time travel from the best of the best of each decade, and plunked me down in front of my present system and many of yours, I'm certain...I would simply be overcome and speechless. We grow with the process of betterment. It is exciting and keeps everything fresh. More peace, Pinthrift |
@fleschler Well, that is to be expected, I think. Vacuum tubes were in their day essential to the consumer electronics industry as well as to the defense industry. For whom would it be profitable today to carry on such aggressive research into a technology all but obsolete outside of audiophilia? The Russians carried on a bit longer than the rest of the world due to dependency on their aging equipment. I have, incidentally, worked as an engineer on Russian military equipment. It was extremely robust and reflected some of highest levels of engineering work I have ever seen. I just re-tubed by preamp with brand new Russian tubes and I think they sound pretty good! |
Dual, Sansui, Adcom ... solid value icons of the past ... I had all of these in my youth ... but they are gone and so don't really qualify as answers to the original question. They have been replaced with more modern .. and better .. alternatives from Rega, Rogue Audio and Outlaw respectively. I have a new Marantz for my home theatre and I think it to be a most excellent product and at least equal to anything from the past in its inflation-adjusted price range. For me, the clear answer to the original question of this thread is Infinity. I still have a Modulus satellite-subwoofer system I bought brand new in 1989. When I bought it, Infinity gave me a personal tour of their factory in Chatsworth, California. That system represented the zenith of Infinity's excellence and it served me very for many years. I attend AXPONA every year and always listened for speakers that could better that Modulus system. Of course many always could, but at what price? I eventually replaced the them in my reference system with a pair of Magico S3. I never have heard any speaker match those Infinitys for the $3300 I paid. |
Kqvkq9 “KLH, the 9's were pretty nice. Those were the first fancy speakers I ever heard. What do they make today?” Oddly enough, I just saw a new pair of KLH speakers at Decibel Audio in Chicago, and I was quite surprised. I owned a pair of KLH One’s from 1977 to who knows when, and loved them in their time. I asked the salesperson if he knew anything about who was making them now, and didn’t have much info except that it wasn’t a corporate conglomerate. I think the model was the Kensington or something like that. I got to a/b them with a pair of mid-range Harbeths, and they kind of held their own, at less than half the price of the Harbeths. They looked very nice also, looked like high quality construction at least on the outside. I think the KLH pair was$1300, the Harbeth pair was $4000. I was very nicely surprised considering how low KLH went quality-wise in the 90’s. I still have the One’s cabinets in the basement. Seeing the new model was like bumping into an old friend. Dave |
"I did think of the inverse question-what brands are better today than before? " Should Woulda Coulda I will keep this to the first component (speakers) mentioned and ones owned and still have . Mission and Celestion Speakers. Still made and no longer relevant from what I see out there. I believe Sonus Faber and Klipsch Speakers are still great companies but have been producing less than stellar products for the mass merchandiser . The ones I have are old ( 20 and 38YO ) and I still enjoy them immensely. Still good companies. |
Uh oh, I'm gonna piss offf some vintage audio collectors. I used to sell the classic silver faced Marantz equipment in the mid to late 70's. I liked that they were relatively compact and very well built. I didn't like what I thought was their muddy sound with a slight mid-bass bump to sound "warm". I was auditioning some speakers, a few years ago, and heard them through a modern Marantz integrated in the then $500 price range. I thought it sounded much more un-colored than their "classic" 1970's offerings. Of course the build and finish was many degrees inferior to the 70's products. I know that Marantz "reference" level products, built in Japan, are of much higher build quality. |
It might be easier to answer which companies are better today than they were in the past (much shorter list).. Many of these great companies have been bought and sold many times over. The corporate model is to maximize profit not necessarily sound quality first. The bean counter accountants run these companies and the values that made the brand great, fade away in many cases. Not always, but the list is long. |
What brand was better than it is today?
All and every brand sounded better 40 years ago. It was a new and exciting time with hi-end stereo and quadraphonic equipment easy to purchase. Expensive yes, but, available. As most of us will agree on, it was speakers that made the system, 2 or 4 channel. The specifications of the pre-amp and amp meant little with bad or low-end speakers at the end of the setup. Total amplifier distortion cannot be heard with bad speakers. Total amplifier distortion cannot be heard with good speakers. Low distortion amplifier with good speakers can be heard. HiFi. I expect this is my first and last response to a question that I have heard mostly my entire life. I expect anger concerning my simplification of a great question with little support of my view. Speakers can make a bad amp sound good. Speakers can make a good amp awesome. What is better and what has lost favor? It is a subjective question at best. Me? McIntosh tube pre and power amps are better than 40 years ago. I am running a Sansui QRX-9001 rebuilt by Jim at QRX Restore and Bose 901's front and 301's rear. A classic setup because it is classic. Back to the question " What brand was better than it is today?" Sansui and Bose. Regards to all that read this. David E. Bruns |
As a brand: Theta Digital. Not necessarily for product quality, but lack of innovation and introduction of new products. As a huge fan of the old Casanova I was really looking to see the replacement, the Supernova come out, but it never made it out of the prototype stage. This is a brand that has been relegated to back-burner stuff for a while. They promised HDMI compatibility for what, 2 years, then they introduced I think 2 new versions of the casablanca, some new Class D amps, and now are back to barely operating publicly. The last press release of theirs was in June of 2017: https://www.thetadigital.com/press-releases/ Best, E |
What’s wrong with today’s marantz products? Has any one even had a listen? I understand of course the legendary status of their 60’s amps etc....but some of what they produce today is pretty darn good, especially their reference series components, ie the pm14s1 and the associated sa14 cd player....I own the pm14s1 integrated as well as the sa8005 sacd player and i think they sound terrific. The ruby series of components are pretty nice as well... |
Pioneer! Quote: Gutenberg references a 270w Pioneer receiver from 1980, and a test of that receiver by Innovative Audio shows that it can go toe-to-toe with the newest gear. https://gizmodo.com/why-your-dads-30-year-old-stereo-system-sounds-better-t-5825359 |
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