I have a Fisher 400 and 500 tube receivers which are very warm and tubey sounding. I keep them as souvenirs. I also have Sherwood 7100 which is also very good and cheap. My two Yamaha CR620s are used for my big screen TVs and provide excellent low cost sound (Tom Port of Better Records uses them to audition hot stampers with Legacy Focuses).
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.