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Did the Old Receivers Sound Good?

Before the high end started, we had all these receivers and integrated amps from Pioneer, Kenwood, Sansui, Sherwood, etc., all with incredible specs.  Then somehow we decided that specs didn't matter and we started moving to the more esoteric stuff from Ampzilla, Krell and whoever, but the specs were not as good.  My question is - Did the old Japanese stuff with the great specs sound better? I don't remember.  I'm asking because many seem to be moving back to the "specs are everything" mindset and I was thinking about all that old stuff with so many zeros to the right of the decimal point. 

chayro
ibmjunkman's avatar
ibmjunkman
228 posts
 

To my 74 year old lead ears my Pioneer SX-1050 and JBL L222 Disco speakers sound just fine. 😊

wturkey's avatar
wturkey
722 posts
 

“Did the Old Receivers Sound Good?”


Oh yes! Especially the ones made in West Germany. 
 

Your mileage may vary. 

aewarren
575 posts
 

Good?     Yes.

Great?     No.

ghdprentice
6,358 posts
 

No… that old stuff is just old stuff. I have an old Marantz, and had a couple old receivers… but they are not remotely competitive with todays high end… or any high end at any time. There was a dip in performance when point to point wiring was given over to printed circuit boards… but high end audio far surpassed old receivers… well since the advent of high end. There are a few folks that were happy with what they had… which is good for them.

edcyn
1,876 posts
 

The NAD 3020 I took back to my tiny apartment for a shoot-out in the mid 1970's truly sounded better than the Kenwood KW-70 receiver I'd been using for the previous several years. It didn't make one whit of difference that the NAD put out considerably less watts. It was a move that revitalized my audiophile tendencies, tendencies I'd put aside when girlfriends & dating entered my life.

 

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