Harman / Kardon
| Harman Kardon
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | |
| founding | 1953 |
| Seat |
Stamford , Connecticut , United States
|
| management | Dinesh Paliwal ( CEO ) |
| Branch | Consumer electronics |
| Website | www.harmankardon.com |
Harman Kardon is a manufacturer of hi-fi components. The society was founded in 1953 by the physicist Sidney Harman (1918-2011) and the engineer Bernard Kardon in New York City .
history
In 1953 Harman / Kardon was founded. In the following year, the company launched the Festival D1000, the world's first receiver ( amplifier and tuner in one device). By 1956, the company had grown in value from its original $ 10,000 seed capital to $ 600,000. Kardon left the company.
In 1958 the first stereo receiver (Festival TA230) was released.
With the Citation II , the world's first came HiFi - stereo power amp with an ultra wide frequency response from 18 to 60,000 Hz to market. It was technically revised again in 1963.
In 1962 the company merged with the American cable television company Jerrold Corporation , whose owner Milton Shapp finally took over Sydney Harman's company shares.
In 1964 Harman / Kardon advertised the Citation A, the world's first transistor hi-fi stereo amplifier. However, this is controversial because Grundig presented the SV-50 as early as August 1963 at the international radio exhibition .
In 1969, Sydney Harman acquired New York-based Jervis Corp. , which was later renamed Harman International , not only returned the Harman / Kardon brand, but also the well-known loudspeaker manufacturer JBL in 1969 .
In 1976, Sydney had to sell his company again because he accepted the post of Deputy Secretary of Commerce under Jimmy Carter .
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The new owner, the food company Beatrice Foods , specialized more in food than in audio products, with which the company had already lost half of its value in 1980. Beatrice sold parts of the Harman group, including Harman / Kardon to Shin Shirasuna (Japan). Harman International, including the JBL brand , bought Sidney Harman back for $ 55 million. In 1985 Harman was finally able to buy back Harman / Kardon.
Sidney Harman managed the company himself until shortly before his 88th birthday. In May 2007 Dinesh Paliwal took over as his successor. The takeover of Harman International Industries for almost eight billion US dollars by the holding company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and GS Capital Partners, which belong to Goldman Sachs , was canceled due to the financial crisis in November 2007.
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In November 2016 it was announced that Samsung would take over Harman International, and thus also the Harman / Kardon brand, for around eight billion dollars. The takeover was completed on March 11, 2017.
Harman produces tailor-made audio solutions for the vehicle manufacturers BMW , Mercedes-Benz , Volvo , Mini , Jeep , Kia and Subaru .
Products
- 1964: Citation A, the first full transistor receiver
- 1969: HK-50, omnidirectional loudspeaker
- 1970s: record player with tangential tonearm Rabco
- 1980: Citation XX , high-current amplifier, which The Audio Critic called "the world's best-sounding power amplifier". It was designed by the Finnish engineer Dr. Matti Otala , who discovered and described transient intermodulation distortion (TIM) in 1970. The Citation XX came from the project to get the best possible measurements of output signals and the best perceptible sound.
- Cassette decks since the 1970s, 1983 the top model of the x91 series CD491 with Dolby HX Pro ; the latter was rated in 1984 by the magazine Stereoplay just like the high-end device Nakamichi DRAGON ; in the 1990s also devices with Dolby S noise reduction
- CD player from 1986
- Multi-channel receiver ( AV or surround )
- 2005: Fully digital 5.1 surround sound system for the S-Class from Mercedes-Benz ( W221 ), with which, thanks to DTCP technology, for the first time modern multi-channel formats of DVD audio and video as well as DTS CDs in the automobile could be played.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ harman.com: Leadership
- ↑ a b pl.harmankardon.com, Harman Kardon History , archive link ( Memento from November 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Tusini: Festival D-1000 Radio Harman Kardon; New York, build 1954, 7. Retrieved April 28, 2018 .
- ↑ HiFi Classics, Harman Kardon Citation II ( Memento from July 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.hifimuseum.de/harmankardon-citation-a.html
- ↑ History of JBL in the official German JBL store. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 9, 2016 ; accessed on April 28, 2018 (English).
- ↑ hifiengine.com 2020, Harman Kardon HD710 , accessed May 27, 2020
- ^ History of Harman International Industries Inc. - FundingUniverse. Retrieved April 28, 2018 .
- ↑ Samsung plans to take over Harman . In: ifun.de . ( ifun.de [accessed on April 28, 2018]).
- ^ Samsung Electronics Completes Acquisition of HARMAN. Retrieved April 28, 2018 .
- ↑ harmankardon.de: Automotive
- ↑ Popular Mechanics 1/1969, page 134, from Google Books , accessed April 25, 2020.
- ↑ Popular Science 6/1980 at Google Books , accessed April 13, 2020.
- ^ The Audio Critic. Electrocompaniet , archive link, archived December 4, 2008; accessed on April 24, 2020.
- ^ Otala, M. "Transient distortion in transistorized audio power amplifiers" , IEEE Xplore. Volume 18, Issue 3, September 1970, pp. 234-239.
- ↑ The birth of the Otala amplifier The Early Electrocompaniet, A story of the legendary 25W "Otala" amplifier as seen by Terje Sandstrøm, one of the original designers from April 26, 2009 , accessed April 24, 2020.
- ↑ hifiengine.com 2020, HK1000 (1974) , accessed April 25, 2020.
- ↑ Stereoplay 5/1984, top class II.
- ↑ fonoforum.de 8/1991, test report of a Dolby S cassette deck (PDF, 2 MB) , accessed on April 13, 2020.
- ↑ hifiengine.com 2020, Harman Kardon HD300 , accessed May 27, 2020.