By and large - No. I had Kenwood’s Rotel, I don’t remember them all. Never liked any of them. Or we wouldn’t have Hi- end would we? Tho for a relatively modest investment I currently get great sound. I wish I had some of the $ I spent back on that stuff as well. Between streaming and modern equipment good sound can be had pretty readily and very cost effectively. Around 10 K for normal people it can be done. Many will scoff. I would spend more if I had it.
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.