Fine amplifiers produce excellent square waves.
One receiver matches the square waves of fine amplifiers.
There are numbers of very good separate power amplifiers. The finest of them produce excellent square waves. Quality oriented designers and engineers know that square wave response is profoundly useful because it is a precise projection of musical quality.
Not only does the square wave "mirror" the quality of sound, but it is, in a unique way, sound itself. The square wave possesses the complexity of a musical wave form. Both have a fundamental and a series of harmonics that have a set relationship to one another. The square wave must be able to pass through the amplifier without damage if the musical wave is to pass undamaged.
Square wave measurements do not replace conventional methods of testing components (the results of which appear in specification tables).
Yet it can be said that an instrument which fails to produce excellent square waves is limited in musical authenticity.
All square wave measurements 10V peak to peak.
The new Harman Kardon 430 receiver displays square wave response that is indistinguishable from power amplifiers. A listening test will reveal that the 430, in all but absolute power levels, is the sonic equivalent of any individual component system your dealer can demonstrate.
The implication of a comparison with conventional receivers is obvious.
The square wave reproduced here is riot that of the 430 power amplifier section alone. Amazingly, it is the square wave achieved by the 430 amplifier and preamplifier operating together! The 430 AM/FM tuner is consistent with the outstanding performance quality of the amplifier and preamplifier The 430 functions with two separate power supplies, one for each channel the Harman Kardon "twin-power" concept. No matter how much energy is called for by dynamic music passages, performance of one channel is not affected by the other.
At Harman Kardon, technical advances are pursued not for their own sake, but as methods of predicting and improving music quality. It is in this context that we have prepared our literature on the 430 as well as our booklet: Square Wave Analysis of Audio Amplifier Performance.
Your Harman Kardon specialist dealer can supply both. Or write to us directly at
Harman Kardon, 55 Ames Court, Plain view, N.Y. 11803.
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