TA-260

  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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