And let’s not forget, technology has moved on significantly in its ability to more accurately reproduce and amplify an audio signal. . Audio amplifier design theory and practice and our understanding of audio engineering has hugely advanced since then … it’s not just in the area of digital electronics that has evolved massively…
But indeed for the time there were some great products as you would have expected… and indeed it also perhaps demonstrates enjoyable Hi-Fi doesn’t need to be technically advanced or accurate Hi-Fi 
. and some very recent courses I have been on have indeed made me appreciate that all the more.
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May I stretch this to the early '80s?
c. '84 I purchased a Cambridge A75/C75 power and pre-amp.
This was a fantastic combo using a very simple design. For example, inside the power amp there was a dual mono setup with each channel having a huge toroidal transformer, a smattering of discrete transistors and a cluster of huge FETs on the rear panel. The PCB was all done with hand drawn copper tracks! I was quite shocked when I first looked inside an SN2 at just how packed and complicated it was when the old A75/C75 seemed just as good but with one tenth of the complication.
The A75/C75 was a gorgeous sounding pre/amp setup.
Unfortunately mine was stored in the lofts of several houses for 20+ years, in which time a lot of the plastic knobs and switches fell apart. However it would still play. In fact I leant it to CA for them to play with and I got the comment back that they didn’t have anything in their modern line-up to compare!
It sat in a cupboard for a further 5 years until I reluctantly faced the fact I was never going to fix it (I did spend some time investigating replacement switch gear) so in the next house move it went.
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Buddah, All your items fit into what i would be thinking. I reckon there would be many LPs where
this could be a interesting comparison to a modern set up.
Boy you really owned some poor stuff! No Nagamichi Decks there!
I guess no money either?
Nomad I know Exactly where you are coming from fine tuning x/over components. Very intensive and time consuming but if you know what you like the end result can be Very Good.
Haha admittedly I wasn’t alive (well, not until the mid 70s anyway).
My Dad had a hand me down Garrard turntable which was a fabulous thing including the automatic stacker to drop (!) a new record each time the previous one finished. That and a Sansui AU101 amplifier and a beautiful Sony ST-5055 that I have a permanent search on to find again here in NZ. The tuning knob was beautifully weighted, as a child I could spin it just the right amount to go straight to a desired station. Running KEF speakers in homemade floorstanding MDF cabinets. So I can do nostalgia, too.
Would that old kit compete with current gear? Not a chance. (Well, maybe the tuner.)
The Sansui AU101 was the first separates amplifier I came across. My older brother and I persuaded my Dad to ditch his Murphy radiogram for a separates system, the AU 101 and a PL12D plus a pioneer tuner. We then ran his Grundig reel to reel in to the AU101. Happy days.
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This thread comes at an interesting time for me. I just hooked up my old Arcam A60 and did some AB’ing with my NAC272/250 DR/XPS. Now admittedly the A60 has had some upgrades to the power supply which knocks the noise floor down. BUT horror of horrors it sound more engaging than my Naim setup! The Harbeth C7 ES’s are richer tonally and have more boogie! There is a lack of transparency for sure but I’m loosing sleep over this. Is it time to move from Naim?
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Right on jan i really did mean for the topic to cover 70/80s but the title just felt right.
De-rack the Naim and box it up. If you’re not tempted to get it back out the boxes after two or three weeks then it might as well go.
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How long ago were your Naim components serviced?
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Your reference to courses is intriguing. Pardon the pun but could you amplify, please?
Funny thing is that in the 70s I was busy listening to music, I never really worried about hi fi.
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How?
Maybe just the marketing of cables that has changed?
If one spends such large money on cables, perhaps someone is persuaded to think they are better?
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Bed-side table??
What is wrong with blackletter and blue VUs clashing with green font?
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Jan explored Wagner with LS3/5a’s. Wonderful!
My leap from Spendor BC1s to a full PMS Isobarik set up, (with a few brief stops along the way), was fueled by Wagner. Damn Wagner! Especially the Solti Ring Cycle.
Damn those sound engineers at Decca, they put so much on vinyl for me to drink in. And to a certain extent Verdi, (particularly the Witches Chorus).
At the shop we used to call certain tracks “Isobarik” music. Ambush the punters with “Rite Of Spring” or the said Verdi and wait for the thud of jaws hitting the floor.
To sell JBL and Cerwin Vega we used Boney M. Naturally…
Back on the thread topic though, I would concur with Claire. And go further. The emotional investment you made in hifi, whilst younger, (and generally poorer), distorts your perceptions of “then” and “now”. But times change.
I think “now” is much, much better. I believe my current system betters anything I had in the past for clarity, realism and musicality.
Looks better too and cost a fraction of the real money I spent back then too.
PS Jan, I had forgotten the Grace 714. Great photo. Thank you.
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My first foray into being a pedantic critic of hifi was as a child in the 70s. Listening to the stack-system-in-a-wheeled-cabinet-with-smoked-glass-door belonging to a family friend in Onchan, cardboard sounding speakers on the floor, I was asked for my opinion and I chose honesty over politeness. 
‘70’s no.
‘80’s yes, mostly resulting from three chaps; Bob, Julian & Ivor. Like ‘em or loath ‘em, they pulled (British) hifi in a new direction.
As ever, YMMV.
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I always “lusted” over two bits of kit:
Revox B77
Nakamichi Dragon.
I’m probably too late in life to either own, or have time to appreciate, either….shame, really.
I did have an Akai 4000DS at one time. 7”(?) reels of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, early LP’s from Camel etc. Gave it to my brother some thirty+ years ago, not seen it since…….shame, but those bloody awful rubber spool clamps were all shot anyway!
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