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.
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.