Who actually won the 70's receiver war?

For me, the Rotel 1603 was the one to own if you had to own one of the beasts. Everything about it just seemed more right and the sound was superb and seemed more refined and closer to the then high end well respected separates from high end companies. Even preferred it over the Marantz 2500 and 2600.

Not to hijack the receiver thread (I still am a Yamaha CA-3020 lover), but I also loved the RB5000 (the POWER amp) and the RT-1024 tuner. Just mind boggling...

Three links below to refresh memories of these beasts:

https://www.google.com/search?q=rot...v&sa=X&ei=yqUFVPu1EcLOggSbmoGADw&ved=0CB0QsAQ

https://www.google.com/search?q=rot...&ei=-aYFVP-GNsbLgwTZnoDAAw&sqi=2&ved=0CCgQsAQ

https://www.google.com/search?q=rot...v&sa=X&ei=QacFVI6PIZbAggTsn4CwAQ&ved=0CB0QsAQ
 
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Don't know if you ever seen that ad back in the the 70's with that dude standing next to a stack of King recievers but the big Rotel was in there,eventually sold it to a dude that was trying to piece that stack together for his own pic..

Are you talkin about the cover of Stereo Review from May 78,I think?
 
I was one of those GI's (USAF, actually) in Germany in 1980-82 and buying up nice gear, but I can say that from my view, the Exchange had pretty run of the mill stuff that we could have easily found at any US stereo shop, poorly displayed. At Bitburg, we had an Audio/Photo Club that had much better stuff, properly displayed. I'm not sure I knew of anyone that bought at the exchange.

As to the winners, I know the love of 1970's Sansui, but to me, once the 80's hit they fell fast and hard. I thought pretty much all the top brands blew by them.
 
I forgot about those separates from that generation. They went up against anything from any of the other Japanese companies easily and I think were better with very few exceptions, iif any in reality.

With this generation of equipment Rotel showed it could run with the best of them. Sadly, by then most stores had established their product lines for up to 3 equipment generations and room to add a new contender regardless of how good in the higher quality niche was limited. Best we could do was slot in the 603 and consolidate from a number of other companies such as Scott, KLH, Concord and Superscope.
 
Rotel moved a lot of receivers during the golden days of hifi in the UK. Much more, I would guess, than Hitachi, Pioneer, Sony, Sansui, Trio/Kenwood & Technics individually. Equally NAD in the latter days of this period. I get the impression from many US posters' comments that they think Rotel is a UK (manufactured) brand. They're Japanese.
 
Tiny personal listening devices which deliver music via headphones won the war starting with the Sony Walkman all the way through to its contemporary counterpart the mobile phone.

Most people don't use a 'system' to access music. The receiver is a relic. The 'system' for the most part has been relegated to Home Theater.
 
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