My buddy and I did some testing at his house with a 25 year-old Sansui and a newer Pioneer integrated receiver. The Sansui sounded "better" at the same SPL. We put his digital storage scope and programmable signal generator on both and discovered the Sansui's transient response made the Pioneer look slouchy. Maybe it was the Sansui's relatively monstrous caps that resulted in the difference we saw.

House of the Rising Sone
Out in the mid or far field
Dedicated mid-woofers are over-rated