Today my Sansui 661 Stereo Receiver circa 1976 arrived. I paid $150.00 for it (including shipping) on eBay. A true thing of beauty. Real rosewood case. Weighing in at 22 pounds! I unhooked my existing modern receiver and hooked it up. In the true spirit of testing, I plugged in my iPod touch and put on Steely Dan, Aja.
One word...
WOW!
Just blown away. If you have never heard music through a good set of speakers and a good receiver you have no idea what you are missing. It is if you are sitting in the room with the musicians playing live for you.
I had forgotten what real hi-fidelity sound sounds like. We assume as technology evolves that the products get better. In computer hardware and video technology this is certainly the case.
Not so with audio.
Unfortunately in the late 80's and early 90's electronics started moving to VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration). VLSI in laymans terms is packaging up a whole bunch of discrete components into a single chip. Great for computer electronics, not so good for audio.
I know about this because I was a hardware technician back then and was becoming bored with my job as we were moving away from component level repair to swapping out whole boards. It was during that time I began to transition from hardware to software. It was also during that time that the golden age of audio was actually well into its swan song.
During the golden age of audio (thought by many audiophiles to be the 60's and 70's) companies like Sansui, Pioneer, Yamaha, Luxman, Carver, Kenwood, Sony, Bang & Olufsen, Marantz, McIntosh... and more competed with one another in the high end audio market. Think of that for a moment, ten companies in the high end audio market. And the gear was not cheap. The Sansui 661 receiver I just bought was a low end model that sold back in 1976 for $350.00 (That is $1428 in today's dollars [http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl]).
The equipment was hand made in factories by skilled technicians using high end discrete electronic components. Oh, how the times have changed and so has the sound we hear.
It was ironic that while waiting for my receiver to arrive CNN published a story on the death of the Stereo. http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/27/tech/innovation/death-stereo-system/index.html. I chuckled aloud when I read...
"At the same time, grown-up baby boomers, now working adults, invested in better audio equipment, all the better to listen to Steely Dan's "Aja."
You can buy some great stereo amps and receivers from the golden age on eBay. These beasts were built to last. They also came with schematics and a parts list! When they broke they could be repaired. Today there are still places that can service these works of audio art. The fact that there are still so many functional receivers and amplifiers from the 60's and 70's is testimonial to the longevity and quality of these products... sometimes the good 'ol days really are more than just nostalgia.
I was so thrilled with my purchase that just bought a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 10.1 bookshelf speakers. Fortunately speaker technology continues to be strong. I can't wait to get these bad-boys hook them up and give Aja or Dark Side of the Moon a spin.
