In reply to:
The reason seems to be that I was used to the sound of the old albums thru a rather inexpensive record player with speaker ears that didn't, I'm sure, reproduce an accurate sound, but one which I became very "used to" over the years that I listened to it as a kid.
I wonder if that old record player you used to listen to had a tube amp in it. Quite some time ago, I remember getting some old record players from my school. I cannabailzed them for the amp sections (all tube) to make a really ugly but very nice sounding integrated stereo amp. The record player speakers were very poor but once hooked up to some half-decent speakers, the amps really sounded great (aside from the crackly potentiometers).
There are not too many semi-conductor type amps that I like. One of the early Adcoms (GFA-535II) had a sound that was close to "tube-like". I did not like their large amps as much, however.
