My Father passed away a few weeks ago and he had a Pioneer SX-650. I now use it all the time and love it!

I remember in 1979 busting my rear end as a teenager to make money to buy a receiver. I paid 699 US dollars for my receiver. That was a lot of money back then. I still have it and it still works. The only thing I had repaired was the power switch. The unit was gone over and everything was fine. I tried to find a modern receiver but they could not match the sound quality of my vintage unit. Like they say, they just don't make them like that anymore.

I remember the 1970's living in the Valley and driving past Marantz Factory (in big bold GOLD letters M A R A N T Z in front of the building) in Chatsworth Ca. And HK right down the street in Northridge. The Valley (San Fernando) was crazy during the stereo Wars (especially late 1970's), A stereo store on every corner.

I'm 67 and still using my 18 watt Sony receiver here with a pair of Infinity speakers! The only thing I have had to replace is the dial cord due to old age.  The turntable is a Yamaha P-450 belt drive and I have over 170 albums. This guy is spot on!

Those 70's Marantz receivers sound as good as they look. Too bad so many people's main sound source are their smart phones now.

The build quality and "eye candy" effect was much better back then. Once the "home theater" craze took hold, then the overall quality went down (along with price) since "audio" was now competing with flat-screen TV's and home computers. Also many (if not all) of the Japanese firms merged into a consortium and SONY even got out of the high-end audio business entirely. Today the 100% digital displays and cheap buttons all look like sh_t. (IMHO).

Picked up a filthy Sansui 331 at my local recycling shop. Piece of plastic fascia broken off one side, it had likely been dropped or knocked at some stage. It powered up, so I threw down $50 (AUD) and took it home. Disassembled, cleaned everything and removed all the dust and crap from years of sitting in a shed. I measured and reproduced the plastic fascia end pieces with a laser cutter I have access to, glued them on and then I rebuilt and polished the whole thing up.

I then paired this with a set of B&W DM110's I also picked up at that same store for again, $50.

People throw away amazing stereo gear. You just have to know where to look to pick it up for peanuts.

Bought my pioneer sx 780 in 78 the following year I bought the pioneer PL 518 turntable and technics SB-L200 speakers what a great system miss it a lot I'm now 67.

A lot of people recycle these because they're old and assume no one would want them. Husband dies and the wife and kids want to clean out all the old 'junk'. Breaks my heart to learn what has happened to the sound systems my friend's dads used to have. All discarded and they tossed the records too!

I can't tell you how much I miss VU meters!

I believe that finding one of the best vintage amps and recapping it will give you better performance than the new units that cost x3 the price...

I own a Akai AA-1175 and damn i just love the thing

It’s 2021, I bought a new 1974 Marantz 2270 ($450/$650 USD). It moved to many USA locations, & was in storage for a good while. It needed a reconditioning ($220.) @ a local HiFi repair shop 3 years ago. @ that time this Marantz 2270, 70 W rms @ 8 ohms posted 95/97 W. Fitted a Bluetooth adapter & can now stream modern components, phono, & other components that can attach with RCA jacks. The headphone jack makes many to almost all sound great.

You make some excellent points in this video.  In 1977 I purchased a Marantz 4270 for $699 USD.  In today’s money that’s almost $3,000. Given that I still use this receiver as the heart of my main stereo system, it was money well spent. At one time I thought I needed to update my system and I purchased a circa mid-1990’s Marantz 5.1 AV receiver that supposedly had 350 watts.  My 4270 with 25-70 rms watts blew the knobs off the new unit which was promptly returned. The vintage receivers were built to last and with some periodic servicing, they will do just that, and sound great doing it.

What i find neatest about vintage stereo is the work in them and tell they where made to last as quality show on both my vintage Marantz and MCS

I picked up a late 70's  realistic receiver for a song from the original owner, it was rated at 25w. A pair of klipsch KG 3.5 in excellent condition (including the original box) from craigslist for $99.  And I have a 10 yr old no name dvd player collecting dust.  I was blown away when I played a chris botti cd  while testing it.

After the 70s, we really went through 25 years of dark ages for audio equipment.

In my opinion, the 1970's Vintage audio was 100 times better then the equipment they make now.    I have a 70's Pioneer receiver and it works beautiful and the quality is top notch.    I still have have my Technics separate components that I bought in the 80's and it still works perfectly to this day and I used it everyday for at least 2 hours.    The vintage stuff was much better quality.    Now if something you buy lasts five years, your lucky

I agree with all that you say. I own a Pioneer SX-950 receiver and a Pioneer PL-71 direct drive turntable. I'm 66, live in the States. We grew up in a amazing time. Today younger people don't know or care about the precision that went into vintage audio gear. I also have a collection of direct to disc albums. Great video by the way. I look forward to more of your videos.

About '76 I bought a Hitachi SR-700 receiver (40W RMS) & a pair of ported Cerwin Vega HED (10" woofer) speakers. About 2000 I figured it was time to upgrade & bought a very high end Pioneer Elite Home Theatre system with all the bells, whistles, "concert hall" effects & more speakers than the houses of parliament. Pioneer system is long gone & not much missed... I still have my beloved Hitachi SR-700 & the sound is still amazing!