Yes, there has been. But not so much in record players, amplifiers and speakers. Phono cartridges and headphones made huge leaps though. And of course digital technology did. It was utterly shit until very recently.
Is a Thurow T146 or VEB T146, is a professional turntable built at the beginning of the 70’s in the DDR to compete with the EMT 927... despite his look a bit simple is a great machine with a really great phononstage... and it sound really good