Yup, that old audio stuff was built to last.
I've got a rack-mounted Marantz system from the 70s that I use for stereo listening only (no TV, etc.). I've got a tuner, an intergrated amp and a cassette and CD player. Only the CD player is new. The system is matched to a pair of same vintage, Altec Lansing Model 14 horn-loaded speakers.
The sound is incredible, easily matching or out-performing today's systems. The bass is deep and refined and the sound is natural and smooth all the way to the crisp highs. You see a lot of modern systems using 10" or smaller bass drivers. You simply can't get the same depth of bass out of those that you can from a 12" or 15" driver. Then you've got the horns...talk about clarity.
***WARNING - Undisguised technical enthusiast babble from this point forward***
Frankly, I was amazed at how good this system sounded when I got it. I took the amp apart to clean it and was amazed at the build quality. Like Mike, I'm in a band and I own some old tube amps for my guitars. The older the amps, the better they tend to sound and the simpler the circuitry. At the top of the heap are point-to-point amps, where the circuitry is as named and nary a printed circuit board in sight.
So I researched my Marantz and found out some incredible stuff. Many of the audio stuff from the early 70s and earlier were over-built. My Marantz amp - an 1180DC - is one such an amp. Here's the crazy bit. The 'DC' designation in the name refers to just that, DC current - direct current, or 0 Hz. When amps list their frequency response at say, 20Hz-20KHz, the truth is that for many of them, they can't accurately and effortlessly produce anywhere near 20Hz, especially at high loads. As the amp gets closer to 20Hz, it becomes less and less accurate at reproducing that frequency.
Marantz designed the "DC" series amps to reproduce down to 0 Hz. Direct current. However, they still list the amp's range at 20Hz-20KHz. The difference is that since the amp is capable of going all the way down to 0 Hz, it can actually and cleanly reproduce 20Hz. This is what gives you the incredibly low - yet tight - bass response.
When I play Pink Floyd's "When The Tigers Broke Free", and I crank it up, the bass rattles the lights OUTSIDE my house.
Similar thinking went into my speakers. 12" bass driver coupled with a Mantaray horn with a tangerine phase plug in the driver (to keep the phase relationship correct). Altec loaded them with a very cool crossover. You've got a tone sweep provided by a mid-sweep pot and a high-sweep pot and also a very ingenious overload protection system. Basically, if you clip your amp (which in my case would require you to be deaf) and send a distorted signal to the speakers, the protection system engages, a small indicator lights up and it soaks up the unwanted power, protecting the speakers. No dumb circuit breaker here or annoying thermal breaker, just a very smart system. It only engages when it needs to and by absorbing the unwanted power, your listening experience is uninterrupted. Brilliant.
***END OF BABBLE, thanks for letting me vent my enthusiasm!***