Vintage vs modern receivers

Do modern receivers sound better or worse than vintage classic receivers?

[ThinkingBetter]

From my experience, engineers in audio were more of the audiophile kind back in the 70s and 80s. When audio engineering of mass production gear went to China in the late 90s and later, cost, specs and features became the focus and critical listening tests got mostly replaced by simple measurements that won’t tell the true story.

[TheBoomerPlace]

Long story short. I’m over the past and don’t miss any of my 70’s stuff.

[michaelwright]

I rid myself of most all of my modern gear after introducing a Sansui 4000 to my Zu Omen DW's... I have nothing in regards to modern gear that can do what this 53 yo Sansui can do, and does. The punch, the clarity, the phono stage, they knew what they were doing when they built these units in regards to sound quality.

[gotham]

Current Denon receivers all have class AB amplifiers. However, there is a ton of DSP that can be employed for various things including room correction, and there are usually a lot of surround modes the OP might have inadvertently have switched on. Most of these receivers have a setting called pure direct which will bypass all of the DSP and run the signal as pure analog. I suggest the OP tries that

[richardpeters]

There's a big difference between Denon's AVR line for home theater and their two channel HiFi line. He doesn't say which he bought?

[richardramorino]

Could be vintage Receivers produce a sound you grew up with and feel comfortable with. It makes you happy. Maybe a sound that was a little more big and meaty and a little less analytical.

[terryjefferylee]

I've read a lot of the comments here and many make good points but I think the main reason old gear sounds better is that even the cheaper models weren't cheap back then. $400 back then would be more like $6k now. As inflation doubles approximately every ten to twelve years everything would have double four or five times since the seventies or eighties, therefore your modern $1, 500 or so amplifier is not a fair comparison. However, it does have a counter inflationary effect on it's pricing though ie cheaper parts like ICs instead of discrete parts but those cost saving lower the sonic quality too.
To make a fairer comparison to vintage gear you should probably be looking at something like a Luxman or Cambridge model in the $4-6k range.

[DougMen]

Vintage pieces made in the 70s has much beefier power supplies, as well as the fact that their preamp sections used all discrete components, not op-amps, and the power amps were also built a lot beefier too, with large discrete power transistors and large heat sinks. They were generally able to provide more current on demand than budget pieces made today with the same power rating. The Japanese gear made in the 70s, from Kenwood, Pioneer, Marantz, Yamaha, Technics, JVC, and other mainstream companies, was the absolute golden age of great and affordable gear that may never be equaled in the modern age. However, there's nothing wrong with class D amps. There are many great sounding class D amps that sound as good or better than class AB ones at the same power rating and price point.

[spacemissing]

All of my favourite audio equipment was manufactured before 1980.
Some newer things have sounded good to me, of course,
but they still don't have the charming cosmetics of older pieces.

[dans]

My Yamaha AVR has a straight analog path from the analog inputs to either the internal amps, or analog pre outs

[brianbumgardner]

I still have my Harmon Kardon 430 receiver that I bought in 1976 and it sounds great to this day.

[ike]

I am about to buy a Marantz SR9200. Its a 20 yr old receiver. If I keep it for another 20 yr will it start sounding better since it would be vintage by then?

[Fastvoice]

Did Curt from Austin even consider the inflation from 1978 'til today? Of course something can (theoretically) cost four times nowadays but can still be as expensive or cheap as something from the past. You should always compare prices purchasing power adjusted.

[Zhorellski]

I bought a Cambridge AX100 returned it after A/B test it with my old Sansui 771!!! Sansui's Sound-stage, crystal clarity, punch and just a way better sounding Receiver!

[thegrimyeaper]

I can't imagine people actually saying all amps sound the same. That's nuts.

[mat.b.]

Love love love vintage. My '76 Pioneer is my baby and my '79 Yamaha is trying to dethrone it. Recapped and properly restored and cared for vintage can be unmatched in the right niche.

[mikegemmati]

I think beside older receivers being an all analog design, they were using output transistors that were extremely well made that can no longer be obtained (Toshiba for example). Sort of like NOS tubes. The mica plate material was superior in those and thus they tend to sound better.

[jakedill]

Speaking of the Denon, didn't the latest batch that had the super secret double plus HDMI 2.1 Dolby digital handshake.. wasn't the handshake chip broken, it's like 5 grand for the only viable reason to upgrade to it to get that that sweet sweet handshake chip and it was and it was it was spoiled.. it was a bad handshake.. I never heard what happened with those, I assume they did a recall but it it sounded like it was not exactly going down that way.. I guess this was a little while ago but, I just thought of buying a new receiver just to get a handshake token...

[brentcollins]

I absolutely LOVE my 1990 Technics that I bought brand new for my college graduation. I still listen to it every day, hooked up to Sonus Faber Sonetto 3’s.

[Vince-jjqs]

My Pioneer Spec Crushes so many modern amps with amazing sound through Arnies and possibly yours Paul Genesis III's....Love the videos Sir Thank you.