Just me or did things look better back then

That's the most beautiful thing I have seen all year.

What would it sound like?

 

I had this Marantz SS amplifier. It didn't sound very good unless you warmed it up for a few hours. Old power supply caps? Don't know. But - with the blue light on - very classy:

 

If there's anything to glean from this thread its' an appreciation for design targeted to the marketplace. Those space-age "gadget"-looking things from the '70s come from a time when there were people looking for space-age "gadget"-looking things. Style in itself, was a part of a lifestyle that could support status symbols like that, and there were enough customers who would respond to that, to encourage manufacturers to cater to those tastes.

It may seem cynical on the surface to think in these terms, but getting peoples to buy merchandises is a business, not an art. But that doesn't mean that the art can't be a part of the product at different times of our history. Remember when the radio first became an affordable, widespread consumer product...and lots of makers started focusing on the cabinetry designs that would make such an object a desirable thing to have in one's home where visitors could see it?

This is Marketing 101, yo! No less significant than an avocado-colored refrigerator, or fins on your Buick!

 

Yeah, the 70s Marantz gear has a very classy look that has stood the test of time. In addition to better performance, in general, one reason I prefer separates is the faceplates are cleaner and less cluttered, with fewer knobs, buttons and switches:







For those who don't like the silver look, Sansui (and others) made some beautiful gear in the late 70s with black faceplates:

 

Visually, I generally like vintage silver face gear with walnut cabinets, but that Pioneer is a thing of beauty I'd gladly have on display in my living room.

 

Well, the radio was AM-FM, Dual 1214 turntable with Shure cartridge (not bad), 8W+8W @ 1% distortion amplifier, electrical frequency response 25-25,000 Hz
I've heard the 126. Not bad at all for the mid 60s, just a toy for our standards. But mind you, the 226 (the current version) is almost identical aesthetically but amplifier and speakers are very good for today's standard.
Eye candy: go to this link, click on the first image then browse all the others. Enjoy!

 

Some of the things people are showing in this thread do, to me, look very nice, but some of them just look clunky, IMO.

 

I loved the look of my old Pioneer receiver. It was part of the SX series from the early 80s. Wood sideboards, long tuner display, VU wattage meters, radio signal strength indicator, and a sold green backlight.

That look is hard to beat.

 

Braun(?) stuff Dieter Rams designed 50+ years ago. If I were rich, I'd try to find a mint Rams-designed system just to play Kraftwerk on!

I'm an odd man out, though; I don't care for all those huge, busy-looking '70s receivers. I prefer the look of '70s/'80s Naim kit and similar. Minimalist. Nait 1 driving LS3/5A's; bliss.

 

And audiophile quality. Sounds Outrageous!

 

I still have mine! I went though several highly regarded FM tuners a few years back and the TU-717 was the one I kept. Great for the eyes ad ears!

 

Even speakers looked better in the early '80s.

 

Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. I remember not caring for many of the hifi products in the 60's in general, with some exceptions. I really began liking the look of the equipment in the 70's in general. Somehow it seemed to me like a lot of the brands were putting more thought into design. I always loved the design of the receivers from the 70's and early 80's, with the gleaming silver fronts, large and long blue or green tuner displays, the power meters and the myriad of buttons and knobs. I had a Sherwood 7310 and a Sansui 9090. I had both of my receivers on a Radio Shack timer so I could fall asleep listening to music. I loved the look of the room faintly illuminated by the blue lights of the front panel. I thought those receivers were beautiful, but I will admit when I first saw pictures on the SHF of some of the same equipment sporting black faceplates I like that even better. I wish that had been an option available in the US.

At first I was not as big of a fan of the black receivers and gear that started to replace the shiny silver faceplates in the 80's. you could still get silver on some models. The other thing that was changing is watching TV or video on large screen TV started becoming a major factor. People were starting to make video a bigger part of their activities and dedicated home theater rooms were becoming more popular. I think the switch to black gear and front panels that were smaller and dimmable were part of that. I came around and I got to like the look of the black AVRs, particularly the Yamaha's. I had 3 of the flagship model Yamaha AVRs over the last 32 years. I got used to the smaller tuner displays with dimmable displays too. These days when I watch movies I dim the lights to 5% and when listening to LPs I will often dim the lights to 25%. The dimmable displays are great under those conditions.

Lately there seems to be a lot more variety in the appearance of the gear. For me it is a really mixed bag. There is some gear that you couldn't pay me to own. There is some other gear I really like the appearance of. In my own case, I love the sleek modern appearance of my EAT C-Sharp turntable. I also like the simple understated appearance of my Parasound HINT 6 Integrated amp.

To sum it up for me: I am not a fan of most 50's gear. The same for the 60's gear, but I liked a bit more of it. I REALLY liked the 70's gear going into the early 80's. I wasn't so fond of the mid to late 80's gear. Going into the 90's I got used to the look of the gear and began to like it. To be honest, the 00's don't stand out one way or the other in my mind. The gear today has the most variety in many ways-I really like some of it and some of it I really don't care for. YMMV

 

Truthfully, I never saw tube gear then and love the exposed tube look today. But, seeing some of the old Marantz gear like Jimi Floyd posted, really brings back some great memories of listening to music with my big brother. Great thread.

 

You make a good point regarding tv and audio becoming a bigger part of our lives. When I grew up, 1970’s, you watched tv or listened to music when there was nothing else to do. I didn’t come into the house until the cow bell rang and it was dinner time. It was sports and socializing first.

 

I had a 12" B/W TV in my dorm room. I remember the first time I fed a signal from the earphone jack of the TV to an AUX input on my Sansui 9090. A rerun of Star Trek (original series) came on and I remember hearing all kinds of detail in the theme song that I never heard before. The bongos which you barely noticed played through the tiny speaker in the TV, was very prominent. The same was true with some low bass which was lost entirely on the TV speaker. I was hooked! From that point forward any TV in the same room as my stereo was connected to the stereo. In 1979 I got a VHS VCR that I drove through my stereo for the audio.