Harman Kardon Citation 16
A 24.9-kilogram power amplifier. Studio Sound's reviewer dismissed the spec sheet, and Modern Recording called it one of the really great amps available.
Overview
The Citation 16 is a two-channel basic power amplifier. It sits behind a separate preamplifier or any other line-level source delivering roughly a volt. Harman Kardon built it for standard rack mounting, and at 24.9 kg it makes that rack earn its keep. The company's own advertising in late 1975 billed it as a professional-standard stereo power amplifier with a minimum total output of 300 watts RMS, twin power supplies, and extremely wide bandwidth. The same campaign paired it with the HK 930 receiver and the A 401 integrated, which put the Citation at the top of the house line.
What the manufacturer claimed and what the period press measured are two different stories, and the Citation 16's record is tangled on that point. Studio Sound (September 1975, p.18) reported a claimed 150 watts per channel from 20 Hz to 20 kHz into 8 ohms at under 0.05% total harmonic distortion, plus a 3 µS risetime and 1.25V input sensitivity for rated output. Then it added, bluntly, that the specification quoted many other performance standards without stating the conditions under which they were measured, and that these were "of course, meaningless." That is a magazine telling readers, in print, not to trust the data sheet.
Audio (December 1976, p.78) printed the manufacturer's numbers in full: 150 watts minimum RMS per channel, both channels driven into 8 ohms, 20 Hz to 20 kHz, under 0.05% THD. Power bandwidth ran from 5 Hz to 110 kHz at under 0.1% THD into 8 ohms with both channels driven at 75 watts per channel. One-watt frequency response was 0.5 Hz to 120 kHz at under 0.2% THD. Square-wave risetime was better than 3 µS, phase shift was under 0.5 degrees at 20 Hz and under 12 degrees at 20 kHz, and slew rate was greater than 30 V per µS. Those are the figures to work from, and they are the manufacturer's own.
By the following year the naming had become a problem. Studio Sound (November 1978) ran a correction noting that the amplifier reviewed back in September 1975 had in fact been the Citation 16A, not the Citation 16 as the front panel testified. The 16A, that note explained, differed from the plain 16 in several ways: decreased transient intermodulation distortion, Darlington output transistors, reduced crossover distortion, and no integrated circuits in the input stages. The version without the output-level LED indicator on the front panel was designated the Citation 16S. Anyone chasing "a Citation 16" should check the badge first, since the review literature was written about a variant.
The front panel carried illuminated VU meters. The circuit itself is described in the period coverage as "wide open" at all times. The LED display is a monitoring convenience, not a limiter, and nothing is harmed if actual delivered power exceeds the indicator range selected. Modern Recording (April 1976, p.56), after living with the unit in a system, called it one of the really great amplifiers available at the time. It described a new sense of clarity and openness across the audible range, from the tiptop transients down to the deepest bass, with the qualification that the listener needed speakers able to take the power the amplifier delivered. That same issue's general description (p.54) confirms the basic-amplifier topology and the roughly one-volt line-level sensitivity.
Price and availability varied by market. Studio Sound (September 1975, p.18) listed the UK price at £465 through agents Highgate Acoustics. In the United States the amplifier turns up in the used columns of Audio (September 1977, p.14) at $575 for a mint example. Elsewhere in the same issue a reader's system listing pairs a Citation 16 with Dahlquist DQ-10a speakers and a DQ-1W subwoofer. By Studio Sound (August 1980, p.36) the Citation 16 was still being catalogued alongside the Citation 19, listed there at 150 watts per channel into 8 ohms with full-power bandwidth of 5 Hz to 45 kHz within ±0.5 dB. That is a later, terser set of figures than the 1975 sheet.
For a collector, the Citation 16 is a heavy, rack-mount, line-level power amplifier from the mid-1970s with a paperwork problem. The performance claims are ambitious, the review consensus was enthusiastic, and the model lineage is muddled enough that buyers should verify which variant they are looking at before paying Citation money.
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