Indeed, and that's why there was a lot of crap made then, as well as some truly outstanding stuff, because like you say, listening to equipment from both the perspective of the buyer and designer was, shall we say, 'unfashionable'. It's probably also a significant reason why Quad IIs sound how they do!

However, it's no coincidence, I feel, that those who did as much listening then as they did measuring, ended up both designing and owning the best sounding kit at the time

Marco.