| Re: Refurbishing '60's or 70's Era Stereos [message #91843 is a reply to message #91841] |
Thu, 07 May 2020 10:50  |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18791
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Well, and to your point, some of those 1970s receivers were wonderful. I agree with you about Harman Kardon gear. And Marantz made some good stuff too. That was also the era of the entry of higher-quality Japanese imports. Some of them took us by surprise because most considered Japanese gear to be cheap and low-quality. But I remember how much Yamaha gear surprised me. By the late 1070s, I think they were my favorite brand of receivers.
Maybe I should clarify myself, since I think my comments are what veered this thread into a discussion about what "junk" was made in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
In a lot of ways, the 1950s and 1960s were when things were made the best, in my opinion. It was also America's boom years, and there was a lot to like about things "Made in America." And as I said, I think by the late-70s, Japanese manufacturers were starting to make some really good stuff too.
But what I was trying to say was there was a lot of junk made back then too, as in all eras. And there was a lot of equipment that wasn't terrible, but that wasn't particularly good either. Think about all those "console stereos" of the 1950s and 1960s. And the "all-in-ones" of the 1970s, having a record player with ceramic cartridge on a plastic tone arm, AM/FM and eight-track tape.
And even many separates were pretty bad. There were lots of cassette decks in the 1970s that sounded terrible, especially the top-loaders. You could find really great cassette decks by the late 1970s that rivaled reel-to-reel performance, which was amazing given the tape speed. But most cassette decks weren't all that hot. Same with turntables. There were some excellent ones, but many of the lower-priced turntables were nasty little plastic things with ceramic cartridges.
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