Selling audio in the 70’s and early 80’s, I went through a lot of equipment for my personal system. The best receiver I ever owned was a Kenwood KR9400. It was a beast but also sounded excellent. I was driving a pair of Rectilinear 7 tower speakers, around $800.00 a pair with a Thorens TD 125AB Mark II turntable and a Shure V15 type III cartridge. I also had the Advent cassette deck which was a rebranded Wollensack (3M) deck. I have vivid memories of the sound of that system which was all good. Like a dope, I sold it when the next latest and greatest thing came along. It took a long time but I finally learned my lesson.
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.