Harman HK-50 (ca. 1969)

Name: Harman Kardon HK-50
Brand: Harman Kardon

Little is documented about the Harman HK-50 beyond its appearance in late-1960s audio publications. Here is what the record shows. It was an omnidirectional speaker system, compact for its era. It used an 8-inch air-suspension woofer and a 2¼-inch hard-surface cone tweeter, with a 2,500 Hz crossover. HiFI-Stereo (February 1969, p.24) listed its frequency response as 35 to 18,000 Hz.

High Fidelity (April 1969, p.57) covered it under the heading “Compact Speakers Boast Omnidirectional Sound,” describing an enclosure that housed the long-throw woofer and the hard-surface tweeter behind a black grille. That same issue prompted a follow-up advertisement in HiFI-Stereo (May 1969, p.54) with a pull-quote calling the HK-50 “an uncommonly good-sounding small speaker, indeed the best we’ve heard yet in its price class.”

That is about all that survives in period sources. No production years, original price, power handling or long-term reliability data have turned up.