I had a Technics “New Class A” amp but unfortunately, it wasn’t one of those.
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I very much liked a friend’s B&W DM2’s, I wonder whether he still has them? I seem to remember them as being quite big on short stands.
I think that what the modern era has bought is excellent sound quality at relatively modest prices.
In the 1970s I had to make do with my parents’ Ferguson Studio 6 Music Centre. But a mate’s paremts had a Micro Seiki MB15 turntable with a Sansui amp and (I think) KEF speakers. Pretty cool to a 16 year old. Used to do a lot of listening on that system.
Apart from that, and a few vintage turntables, I can’t really remember how a lot of 1970s hi-fi sounds - it was way out of my pocket back then. One thing i do know, however – a lot of 1970s hi-fi LOOKS amazing.
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The SE-A1 is a huge thing, as is the SU-A2.
The 70s were definitely better with more honest straightforward gear. You just had to plug-in the stuff and play the music. People were not wasting time chasing after power chords, interconnects or power supply boxes.
I could have easily live happily now owning one of the old gorgeous Tandberg receivers and their cassette player alongside a Technics Direct Drive table and a pair of KEFs.
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You can do this now you know. :0)
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Celestion Ditton 33
Trio KA3500
ERA Mk VI, SME3009S2, Shure V15 III. (Arm and cart-good, deck not so much)
Nooooooooo, Ban him. 
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I’m not so sure. Graphic equalisers were around in the 70s. As were VU meters, but at least on tape decks they were useful.
Much wisdom here IMO. Absolute quality wasn’t the point. We young pups, just as we were discovering all this great, ground-breaking (to us) music, simply never knew that such a realistic and moving reproduction at home was possible and how much fun it could be. And yes, our ears were in better nick too.
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I started a thread along the lines of ‘upgraditis: a journey or a destination’. I think this thread is connected. Many of us are now in our late fifties/early sixties with accompanying higher frequency hearing loss to a greater or lesser extent. And we are older in a broader sense, our senses or capacity for excitement dulled to some extent. Is it realistic to expect or hope for the same excitement of hearing music reproduced for the fist time with something approaching the fidelity we can get now when we were brought up with our parents’ radiograms or cheap stack systems? That ship has sailed. We were aural virgins. I remember listening to a Bruckner symphony in a hifi shop in Headingley played on an LP12 with an Asak powered by, i think, Naim amp, into Isobarics in 1978 or 79. It was magical. I still remember it. Is it sensible to expect the same impact and excitement now? It may be heretical to say it but perhaps we should try just to listen to and engage with the music rather than assessing and evaluating the sound our hifi systems make
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A lot of things have changed since the 70s. The most obvious being inflation and taxation which have pushed the price of the best Hi-Fi equipment out of reach for most people. That wasn’t the case 40-50 years ago because at the time, any average Joe ‘‘with a little savings’’ could have grabbed some brand new McIntosh or Radford amps with large JBL or Tannoy speakers.
Ultimately, I think modern hifi is a little better sounding than what was offerded back then. The only modern components that are ‘‘years ahead’’ today are cheap digital sources including d/a converters, streamers and media software.
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There’s no speculation on my part of what the 70’s equipment sounded like. I still have mine! I still have my Marantz 2275 and Large Advents from my early system. It was fun to mix and match them into my current system to see what each sounded like. It really boils down to this. The old stuff sounds really good. It just doesn’t have the details of the new stuff. There’s just a veil over the whole sound. You wouldn’t know any better if you had nothing to compare it to.
I was really surprised by the phono section of the Marantz. It is dead quiet and sounds fantastic. In a way it is not surprising since phono was the main source back then, so a lot of design effort went into that. I’m just amazed that it performs this well being almost 50 years old and no parts replaced.
The Advents sound really good, especially for how much they cost. They are nowhere in the league of a modern speaker. I even redid the crossover to get rid of the electrolytic capacitor. That really opened up the highs, but still falls well short of what is now available. They sound a bit boxy and slow too. Buts that’s the sound I started with, so brings back many memories.
As for the looks, the 70’s stuff is the most gorgeous equipment ever made. There’s nothing like those big beefy aluminum faceplates and great feeling knobs. It is all solid and well built. You only find that in the pricey offerings of today. But will it last 50 years?
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This! There have since been designs to look wow. Have been designs to be unobtrusive (most common since 90s onward). But the beauty of the 70’s aesthetic was it was neither. It was designed to look like a machine for making music. And if you loved music that was great.
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Bart, he runs Klipsch Cornwall 3, late model 52 pre and early non DR 500 amp and LP12 and Chord Dac.
Greg
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I started out in the 70s with an ERA turntable with Shure, Pioneer 2x15W and Spendor BC1s. Not a system I would be happy with today.
I ended the 70’s with LP12, Grace 714 arm with a Supex 900. Moving coil preamp homebult with small nuvistor valves. Highly modified/rebuilt Dynaco valve amps (only chassis, transformers and 6550s left from originals) and a pair of big horns from Klipsch. Better but no thanks.
It was first n the 80’s I had a system I would be happy to use today. LP12, Grace 714 and Supex 900 cart, Naim 32/135 and Rogers LS3/5a. I spent my Wagner exploration years usng the tiny Rogers with excellent results.
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Ah, but nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.
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