[Roccus]

But there's a reason most of these instruments passed out of use . . . .

I'm a little late to the party, but oh well....
I like classical music. Don't know much about it, but I enjoy it. I once bought a tape of the Brandenburg Concerto played on original instruments and found the mechanical sounds (clicking, clacking etc) to be disturbing.

[AnAmericanMother]

Part of that is bad miking. The real offender with the clicking and clacking is the harpsichord -- not because the sound of the action is all that loud, but because the sound of the strings is so soft, and they mike it too close to try to get something to amplify. Low tension strings and a small sound box mean that a harpsichord really is a chamber music instrument -- it was meant for somebody's parlor and a gathering of friends, not huge modern concert halls.

There was an effort to build louder harpsichords back in the 60s and 70s - the Zuckerman kit was an example. However, they lost both the sound AND the touch of a real harpsichord. I played some of these Frankenstein monsters when I was shopping for my harpsichord, and they have all of the disadvantages of a piano without having any of the advantages!

If you'll give the Early Music folks another try with a recent recording from Christopher Hogwood's Academy of Ancient Music, or Jeremy Barlow's Broadside Band for early popular music (e.g. Playford's English Dancing Master), I think you'll be surprised at how far the recording quality (and the performance quality) has come.