Onkyo and Denon

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JT20

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So, I am trying to educate my friend about "The best names of the 90s" (and maybe 80s/maybe early 2000s)" - trying to tell her, it's NOT Sony and Bose. There is so much more than that. JBL Audio (which still exists today,) a whole plethora of home speakers like KLH.. names that would humiliate Bose, their crown jewel of which was the Acoustimass 7 (and used a Subwoofer.)

How should I explain the scene of high-end electronics, receivers, cassette decks, CD player (we had a single-disc Onkyo unit) to someone who doesn't even really know how the world was before Bluetooth? (Cassettes time had still passed, though.)
 
Onkyo and Denon were pretty high end in the early 1980s. Sony ES and Sony Esprit were very high end in the early 1980s as well. Blows was always a joke.

For speakers,North American Sound,Electro Voice (the brand I have),Frazier,Altec Lansing,JBL,Cerwin Vega,Weber,Maverick Audio. Those were some high end home/commercial grade brands I remember from the 80s.
 
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aquariuscsm said:
Onkyo and Denon were pretty high end in the early 1980s. Sony ES and Sony Esprit were very high end in the early 1980s as well. Blows was always a joke.

For speakers,North American Sound,Electro Voice (the brand I have),Frazier,Altec Lansing,JBL,Cerwin Vega,Weber,Maverick Audio. Those were some high end home/commercial grade brands I remember from the 80s.
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Well I've heard the saying. "No highs, no lows? Must be Bose."

They were advanced, but I always felt an ACTUAL FLOORSTANDING LOUDSPEAKER with wattage and weight would destroy a Bose.

Is weight of a speaker still a thing? Or is that.. Oh so 90s. ?
 
JT20 said:
Well I've heard the saying. "No highs, no lows? Must be Bose."

They were advanced, but I always felt an ACTUAL FLOORSTANDING LOUDSPEAKER with wattage and weight would destroy a Bose.

Is weight of a speaker still a thing? Or is that.. Oh so 90s. ?
Click to expand...
Yeah Bose was a joke. Speaker weight definitely has merit. The highest end loudspeakers have huge heavy magnets.
 
Speakers can get REALLY expensive. Bowers & Wilkins, Paradigm, Bang & Olufsen, Wharfedale ...etc and those are just "big" names. You get into some of the boutique speakers and things get stupid fast.

On the power amp front, really depended on where you wanted to go. Bryston is a personal favourite, being local, but Martin Logan, Adcom, Rotel, McIntosh...etc were all big names.

Pre-amps you'd have many of the same brands but there was also PS Audio and I believe many of the "staple" brands like Sony, Pioneer, NAD, Braun...etc made units that slotted in here.

Denon, HK, Sony, Technics, Nakamichi, Pioneer, Marantz, Onkyo...etc. They all made very good mid and mid-high grade stuff for the most part during that era but that probably depends on how you define the tiers somewhat.
 
They all sound great at their price point.
Onk was my favorite at the mid-tier group, about $600.

I have an interesting setup of a Creek Audio integrated, Monitor Audio Speakers and a Velodyne Sub.
Different CD players... I actually forget now.
Pretty well balanced...

The problem with stereo equipment is cost can spiral out of control with rapidly deminishing returns.
Don't ask me how I know...
 
I read an article back in the day when they had blind listening competitions between half a dozen or so home speakers. Believe it or not the Bose 901's came in second, but just barely to some large floor standers that cost 4X as much. I have a set of 901's among other speakers and they sound great to me. Different than traditional box speakers. I also have some RTR's which I like. I have had JBL's and Polk's over the years. The best sounding speaker for the price to my ear is a set of two way bookshelf Yamaha's I paid like 100 bucks for a couple of decades ago. I have mucho stereo gear and speakers. Here is a 1980's two channel setup that is stacked in the garage right now.

 
JT20 said:
So, I am trying to educate my friend about "The best names of the 90s" (and maybe 80s/maybe early 2000s)" - trying to tell her, it's NOT Sony and Bose. There is so much more than that. JBL Audio (which still exists today,) a whole plethora of home speakers like KLH.. names that would humiliate Bose, their crown jewel of which was the Acoustimass 7 (and used a Subwoofer.)

How should I explain the scene of high-end electronics, receivers, cassette decks, CD player (we had a single-disc Onkyo unit) to someone who doesn't even really know how the world was before Bluetooth? (Cassettes time had still passed, though.)
Click to expand...
Back in the 80's-90's my home system was mixed components. I find that if you tailor your sound system with the best individual component pieces you really get the very best sound out of your music.
 
Depends what your goals are.. music, movies or mix of both. What sounds good to one persons ears may not to another.

Bose isn’t a joke it’s just a different concept they use psychoacoustics to get a mix of direct and reflective sounds.. and there’s an audience/group of Bose fans that like this. Their acoustimass systems was designed to be “decor chic” or ahead of its time.. small speakers minimalist to the eye yet still fill a room with no sweet spots. I always thought Bose was for the middle aged listeners, that aren’t dedicated audiophiles which wanted an out of the box system that sounded good to their ears without shopping for separate components and speakers.

In my late teens early 20’s, I had an onkyo stereo receiver and 6 disc cd changer with 2 pairs of Bose 201’s and a 10 inch jbl sub.. for me I loved the sound that system had and miss it today. Maybe one day I’ll put a music room man cave back together I just don’t have the space for it now.

but yes if you can pick out individual components and match speakers with subs that sound best for their applications and to you the listener that’s the best way to go.. build your own system. My friend had Polk towers/bookshelves/center and 2 subs with Sony es components I’ll tell it was like an imax theater and music was phenomenal. If I were to put together a system something I could afford I would definitely go with Polk speakers for components I haven’t really looked in a long time so I would have to get back into it and start my research. I would check “denon, yamaha, marantz, and sony”
Onkyo is still great just would want to try something different though I do have the onkyo 6 disc changer packed away.
 
OVERKILL said:
Speakers can get REALLY expensive. Bowers & Wilkins, Paradigm, Bang & Olufsen, Wharfedale ...etc and those are just "big" names. You get into some of the boutique speakers and things get stupid fast.

On the power amp front, really depended on where you wanted to go. Bryston is a personal favourite, being local, but Martin Logan, Adcom, Rotel, McIntosh...etc were all big names.

Pre-amps you'd have many of the same brands but there was also PS Audio and I believe many of the "staple" brands like Sony, Pioneer, NAD, Braun...etc made units that slotted in here.

Denon, HK, Sony, Technics, Nakamichi, Pioneer, Marantz, Onkyo...etc. They all made very good mid and mid-high grade stuff for the most part during that era but that probably depends on how you define the tiers somewhat.
Click to expand...
Ive heard of McIntosh, Bang & Olufsen, NAD (Nihon Audio Devices? People forget "Japan" is really "Nihon.") And Nakamichi. Never SEEN any of these in someone's house.

I have a love for Onkyo because our friend in Connecticut had a really high end COMPLETE Onkyo setup. Sounded really good. Loved it.

There WAS a boutique audio store in Paramus, NJ. Maybe went in there one time. I remember thinking all the prices were wrong. One of the things cost $8000 (if I remember right. Maybe $3000, but i think it was a McIntosh or a Bang & Olufsen and I was like.. "For a RECEIVER?")

We had a Philips receiver,
A Sanyo tape deck (old school Sanyo was good. Had a VU meter. Volume Units. Not DB)
A Technics rape deck (high end Panasonic. Really good. Digital DB meter)
And an Akai 100Wx4 amp.

That Akai was GREAT.

That was our "component stack"...
 
Without budget and hi end means to me its end game and best in groups a Ferrari we are talking min 10k just to start. 10k just gets you into the game and for many that's starters for speakers. I think the friend still at a low end idea if hes thinking of building something. I would recommend more information to even start talking or I just throw out great 5to10k price amps and 15k speakers.
 
Most high end names in the game haven't even been listed. We need a budget and music preferences size of room or it's a waste of time it's just the truth
 
The younger generation does not care about sound quality like the older did. They dont know any better or care to know better. They have many, many more toys to be distracted with, as well as all of us now a days,
Its plug and play of small tiny bluetooth speakers, Bose? Once respectable for their 901's people go and buy the name now and think they are getting something special.
Home theater they think is a Sound Bar with wireless subwoofer.
Its impossible almost to go to a high end store anymore, they are all out of business.
Almost all known specialist brands or brands regarded high quality decades ago are out of business, sold, traded off or bought up by some mega corporation along with all the other brand names which area all owned by a handful of companies. Harmon Kardon is now known as Harmon Industries, owned boatloads of name brands names from the past including JBL, on top of that, Harmon is owned by Samsung.

I dont know if Paradigm is still privately owned, nope, just checked, owned by a private equity firm who also owns Anthem and Martin Logan

Best I can tell Bryston is still very much its own company. Nice.

With all the above said here are lower priced "quality" products of the past that I think the OP has in Mind.

Fast forward for our home, I dont listen to music as I used too. Everything we do is Apple Streaming, or some other streaming, still have all my CDs that I never listen too.
People think XM radio is quality. Oh, my god, shoot me now! *L* XM makes Apple Music streaming sound like a $30,000 music system!
Audio/Video has become our thing, also lack of time for much else.

So our simple Yamaha home theater receiver with wired sub, JBL Studio 520c center channel, Paradigm front left and right (forgot the model, decades old now) and JBL rear Stage (model I forgot). Will blow away anything you may hear in a theater. Just love it.

The receiver now maybe getting around 8 years old is giving me the ich to replace it simply because it is 8 years old but there is no rush because I cant possibly ask for more from it, so dont know why I would replace except for all the latest audio criteria.
Believe it or not, at this point in my life, I would get another Yamaha. It takes whatever I can dish out to it. It amazes me, I can make the top of the receiver literally cook with heat on a movie with intense sound tracks. Anyway I am loyal now to the brand and at least I know who designed and makes the product!!! Geez! Sorry but I dont want a Samsung theater or music system sold to me under the Harmon list of brands. Ill take the Yamaha.

I have a dedicated NAD amp in the past, disappointed me when one channel stopped working, before that (decades) Akai, After the NAD dedicated Onkyo and took everything I could throw at it. Now the Yamaha and extremely happy with it and would choose the brand over anything in the price range.

... and OH MY GOD ... the power ratings!! People think they are buying sound bars with HUNDREDS of watts of power, when based on a true power rating across the audio spectrum is maybe 50 watts. *LOL*
 
Last edited:
alarmguy said:
The younger generation does not care about sound quality like the older did. They dont know any better or care to know better. They have many, many more toys to be distracted with, as well as all of us now a days,
Its plug and play of small tiny bluetooth speakers, Bose? Once respectable for their 901's people go and buy the name now and think they are getting something special.
Home theater they think is a Sound Bar with wireless subwoofer.
Its impossible almost to go to a high end store anymore, they are all out of business.
Almost all known specialist brands or brands regarded high quality decades ago are out of business, sold, traded off or bought up by some mega corporation along with all the other brand names which area all owned by a handful of companies. Harmon Kardon is now known as Harmon Industries, owned boatloads of name brands names from the past including JBL, on top of that, Harmon is owned by Samsung.

I dont know if Paradigm is still privately owned, nope, just checked, owned by a private equity firm who also owns Anthem and Martin Logan

Best I can tell Bryston is still very much its own company. Nice.

With all the above said here are lower priced "quality" products of the past that I think the OP has in Mind.

Fast forward for our home, I dont listen to music as I used too. Everything we do is Apple Streaming, or some other streaming, still have all my CDs that I never listen too. People think XM radio is quality. Oh. my god, shoot me now! *L* XM makes Apple Music streaming sound like a $30,000 music system.
Audio/Video has become our thing, also lack of time for much else.

So our simple Yamaha home theater receiver with wired sub, JBL Studio 520c center channel, Paradigm left and right (forgot the model, decades old now) and JBL rear Stage (model I forgot). Will blow away anything you may hear in a theater. Just love it.

The receiver now maybe getting around 8 years old is giving me the ice to replace it simply because it is 8 years old but there is no rush because I cant possibly ask for more from it, so dont know why I would replace except for all the latest audio criteria.
Believe it or not, at this point in my life, I would get another Yamaha. It takes whatever I can dish out to it. It amazes me, I can make the top of the receiver literally cook with heat on a movie with intense sound tracks. Anyway I am loyal now to the brand.

I have a dedicated NAD amp in the past, disappointed me when one channel stopped working, before that (decades) Akai, After the NAD dedicated Onkyo and took everything I could throw at it. Now the Yamaha and extremely happy with it and would choose the brand over anything in the price range.
Click to expand...
Bose 901’s with their equalizer were very impressive to my ears.
 
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