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Stereo
Festival II TA-260 comes from the beginning of the 60's and thanks
to its quality and durability it is a typical Harman Kardon product
from those years. Aluminum chassis known from other American
production, thick aluminum front emphasizing the solidity of the
structure. Added to this is the good quality of components and
proper assembly. This model had a stereo in the "simulcast" version,
i.e. one channel on VHF and the other on medium wave (or two
channels on medium wave), so you can see on the front two wave
knobs, two scales and two EM-84 magic eyes . And therefore, despite
the lack of an MPX decoder, the receiver had a total of 20 tubes. It
was possible to connect an external stereo decoder using the "Multi
In" and "Out" sockets and by setting the function switch to the "FM
Multi" position. Characteristic for their HK design was the use of
12AU7 / ECC82 tubes in the control stage. The 7355 power tubes used
are also typical HK hallmarks of those years. Only Bogen used the
7355 tubes from among the more famous companies. The lamp gave the
TA-260 power of 25 W per channel in the P&P system. It was a
development / transition version of the 6L6 pentode and preceded the
7591. The HK design did not burden this tube very much and it
operated in a quite "gentle" regime. Therefore, most HK models on
these lamps still have a full set of them on board. It is true that
the 7355 does not have a replacement and is no longer produced, but
it can be easily replaced by the previously mentioned 6L6 or 7591.
Apart from this model, a model with the same design, but less power,
with the symbol TA-230, was offered. The main difference was the use
of the 7408 output tubes working with the amplifier's maximum power
of approx. 12 W. Lamps 7408 are the so-called industrial versions of
the known 6V6 / 6P6S pentodes. They are distinguished by a higher
maximum operating voltage. The sound reproduced by the TA260 is very
faithful and calm with quite a lot of "pace". Overall it is a very
good design with good sensitivity with an FM tuner. In addition, it
also has a turntable preamplifier with a magnetoelectric cartridge
that works on two 12AX7 / ECC83 tubes. As in every respectable
American company, the lamps were signed by their own company -
"Harman Kardon".
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