It was indeed an awesome experience, Elitopus1. It also creates some ambivalence in me; I'm joyful that they had this sound (except for the software...) in the 1930s, but distressed at our lack of progress since then. Things should be much better by now! The disruption in audio progress presented by WWII was one factor, as was the drive to build smaller/cheaper/ easier to build/cheaper in recent decades. Also, lack of perspective contributes. When I took a Lansing field coil compression driver to JBL years ago, the transducer engineers gathered 'round, as they had never seen one before! Hardly anyone practicing today has heard a prewar system, so how would they know how their current work stacks up sonically?