The large receivers in my mind looking back peaked at the SX-1250, Kenwood KR-9600 time period and must say the SX-1980 was truely over the top. The black stack came in and was cool at the time. Stereo still managed to take your breath away but in black and sleeker in design. The CD's, TV's, Betamax, VHS's, Cameras not to mention cars and you see that plus the rising cost of living put a strain on the stereo budget. Life got in the way one could say. Several years past at that time spending many thousand on a Plasma TV and a nice Denon receiver and lovely speakers only to find it was outstanding in DVD playing movies and such but rather thin in playing music CD's. I never was able to let go of stereo systems from the past and unpacked a KR-9400 out hooked up some old speakers pluged a Dual turntable in and there was the missing sound. Audiokarma was available on my dial-up modem on my outrageously exspensive Mac and I found others have gone through similar situations as me. I have had or listened most all of the greats from the peak that we talk about. They are still amazing to hear and lovely to look at even now. Of coarse separates can beat them sound wise or one can through tubes in the mix but they miss the point of why a receiver was loved so much. They had it all and sounded great and looked cool. Only you few know what a thrill it is to trip the on switch and wait for the click and turn the volume up to hear true stereo music rich and full.