Did the Old Receivers Sound Good?

Fun thread. I live in a zone between new and old with a restomod assemblage of modern separates supporting a system based on serviced and recapped Crown PS-200 amp from a little church in Virginia. A good DAC with bright 2549 interconnects, Mogami 3103 speaker cables, a REL T5i sub and a pair of mahogany Wharfedale Linton 85th Anniversary big baffles combine to deliver the best of both worlds LOL.

Total investment $2500  - and a ton of free fun figuring ways to refine that high current 155 WPC into 4 ohm signal!

Yes. I own and use a Pioneer SA-8800, SX-3800, M-72 and C-72.

I had a Pioneer SX1250 in 1976 I think it was. I loved it at the time. (less than $600.00 at the PX). When I came home with it, I bought an Onkyo 303 preamp from CRAZY EDDIE. I used it with the amp section of the Pioneer. I couldn't believe my ears! The 303 blew the pre amp of the Pioneer away. That was the beginning of my audio journey. I also had a Sansui 9090DB. It sounded terrible at least with my Bose 901's at the time. They were pretty though! Joe

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).  

Back in the late 70's, I assembled what for the times was a pretty decent system.

Not state of the art but it was what I could afford at the time. I had a Yamaha CR2020 receiver, ADS L810 ii speakers and a Denon DP790 turntable.

The turntable and some Stax headphones were acquired at a fire sale. Later added a Sony 3 head tape deck and put a Grace cartridge on the Denon since the Yamaha had a MC input. It was a very satisfying system at the time but as some have mentioned, relying on hearing memory is not reliable.

I still have the CR2020 in storage and gave the speakers to my little brother. currently live with a very modest system, Yamaha, KEF ,Technics TT and a Sony CD/DVD player. For "serious" listening, I Run Amazon Ultra hd from a Dell precision desktop through a JDS DAC and amp to HiFi man Ananda or Sennheiser 600 series headphones. Now living in an Audiophile dealer desert, I can't really compare to newer high end stuff. Probably wouldn't matter as my mid 70 yo ears no longer discern the difference.