Harman-Kardon 900B (1966)
Not much is documented about the Harman-Kardon 900B beyond its period advertising and a brief product announcement. No full independent review appears to have survived. The model is properly the SR-900B, an upgraded all-transistor FM stereo receiver in Harman-Kardon's Stratophonic "B" Series. It was introduced in early 1966 as a more powerful version of the SR-900.
Harman-Kardon's own advertising made big claims for it: 100 watts of output, frequency bandwidth of 5 to 60,000 cps at full rated power, 0.2% distortion, and stereo to one or two rooms, separately or simultaneously (High-Fidelity, June 1966, p.21). Earlier ad copy went further. It billed the SR-900B as the world's finest FM stereo receiver and claimed its flat response at full 100-watt power beat other receivers' response at a single watt (High-Fidelity, January 1966, p.17). These are marketing claims, not measured lab results.
The most concrete editorial record is a brief entry in a new-products roundup. Harman-Kardon had raised the SR-900 receiver's output to 100 watts for the B version, with frequency bandwidth of 5 to 100,000 cps at 50 watts per channel. The tuner specifications were unchanged from the original SR-900 (HiFi/Stereo Review, May 1966, p.30).
What the period sources establish:
- All-transistor FM stereo receiver, Stratophonic "B" Series
- 100 watts output (exact rating method not specified in these sources)
- 5–60,000 cps at full rated power (advertising claim)
- 0.2% distortion (advertising claim)
- 5–100,000 cps at 50 watts per channel (product announcement; HiFi/Stereo Review, May 1966, p.30)
- Two-room stereo operation, separately or simultaneously (advertising claim; High-Fidelity, June 1966, p.21)
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