Heathkit AA-30 (1964)
The Heathkit AA-30 holds a modest but real place in the company's history: it was Heathkit's first solid-state stereo amplifier, introduced in 1964. The documentation that survives is thin — essentially a single source — but what it records is specific. The AA-30 was an all-transistor design built from a kit, rated at 40 watts per channel with harmonic distortion stated as less than 0.5% at that output, and a power bandwidth of 20–20,000 cycles. It offered two switch-selected inputs. The physical footprint was compact for the era: 17-7/8" wide, 8" deep, and 5-3/16" high, at 30 lbs.
Heathkit's advertising of the period leaned on the economy of building it yourself — the company's own promotion in High Fidelity (June 1960, p.33) pushed the "economy-plus" angle of its components, a theme that carried into the AA-30's marketing as a way to get solid-state performance without paying full retail. That pitch was aimed at the kit builder who wanted a first transistor amp at a reasonable cost.
No original price, production run, or discontinuation date is recorded. No professional reviews, user reports, or common-failure notes have surfaced. What's known about the AA-30 comes from a single source, so the record is honest but sparse: a first-generation solid-state Heathkit amp, rated for 40 clean watts per channel, built from a kit, and now remembered mostly as a milestone rather than a benchmark.
- Power output: 40 W/ch
- Distortion: less than 0.5% at 40 W
- Power bandwidth: 20–20,000 cycles
- Inputs: two, switch-selected
- Dimensions: 17-7/8" W × 8" D × 5-3/16" H
- Weight: 30 lbs
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