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That was before Motown moved out of Detroit, right?

Could be, but by 1970, the recording arts had advanced by orders of magnitude over just a few years earlier. No doubt, the Motown recordings of that time were being done in state of the art studios with the latest multi-track equipment and sound processing gear.

That was a time of exponential improvement in the technology.

That was a time of exponential improvement in the technology.

Furthering your point on that, here's the 1954 recording of Elvis Presley's That's Alright (Mama), recorded at the modest Sun Records studio in Memphis. It's a classic, a groundbreaking song but compared to "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" of 20 years later, the technology available to Sam Phillips was far less advanced.

That said, with today's technology, I think the type of musicianship heard on the Elvis song and later with The Temptations too often is secondary to technical virtuosity. There's something basic and just plain "good" about the spartan sound of Presley and the straightforward playing of the band (The Tennessee Two?) not altered by autotune and the rest of the modern marvels.

That was a time of exponential improvement in the technology.

All true, but don't leave out the growth of MONEY. Yes there has always been money in music, but with the advent of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five, and especially The Beach Boys, the younger generation got into music in a big way. These kids also were not shy about spending money. I know. I was one of them.

Here's the deal. My parents grew up in the depression and didn't spend what they didn't have to spend. That meant that music was enjoyed in the car on the AM radio that came with the car. Maybe there was a radio in the kitchen that played Sinatra or Tony Bennett. We had an Uncle that was childless and had some extra money and he had a "Hi Fi" in his living room. It was a nice piece of furniture. He bragged that he had "more than fifty albums" in his library. (I found out later that most were 78's, and not LP's). By the time I was 17, my rig left him in the dust. My friends rigs left mine in the dust. I had maybe 130 albums and my friends complained that my selection was too limited.

The point being that by 1970 money was ROLLING into the record companies in amounts that could only be dreamed of before. The record companies didn't mind spending a few bucks for state of the art recording equipment. The equipment makers noticed and soon last years state of the art was second rate and new stuff was needed.

All this was because of the musical groups that caught the attention of the baby boomers at a time when they could spend money that the older generation couldn't or wouldn't spend. The Beatles had more to do with this phenomena than simply the march of time.

” No doubt, the Motown recordings of that time were being done in state of the art studios with the latest multi-track equipment and sound processing gear.”

And studios that were small in size would frequently rent out big rooms at other studios. It was no big deal. Read Sir George Martin’s fascinating book, “All You Need Is Ears.” I does cove a small amount of his career with the Beatles, but is much more his history, and the history of recording. I highly recommend it.