Those old percolators really do make a better cup of coffee. Same with the stovetop espresso makers of similar design. Part of it is because the water often does not get hot enough in electric coffee makers. The other part has to do with how the water saturates the grounds and the overall time of exposure of the water to the grounds.
Changing to a better coffee making system improves the flavor of coffee quite a bit, but that pales in comparison to getting a good burr grinder and using freshly roasted whole beans. In my experience, pre-ground coffee is uniformly bad and is best avoided no matter what. Often when people move to grinding their own beans they get one of those cylinders with the rotary blades at the top. That's better, but still not optimal because it causes 2 problems - the blades go so fast that the friction they generate causes the beans to actually burn a little bit, leading to bitterness in the end flavor. The other problem is that they grind the beans unevenly - some parts will be pretty large grains, while other parts will be fine as dust. This also causes the final flavor to be "off".
Coffee is like audio - there's lots of variation and room for personal preferences. On the other hand, there are some things that are just flat out better. Burr Grinders are just flat out better. Start there. After that, feel free to explore coffee making systems. The stovetop stuff mentioned here is great, as is the one that I settled on for myself, the Aeropress, a sort of reverse french press with a filter. Travels well, makes a great cup of coffee, cleans up easy, stores easy, very small and compact. Love it. And very cheap at $25.
