Lafayette 236A (1962)
The Lafayette 236A shows up in the period record mainly as the KT-236A. The one substantial source on it is a full equipment report in High Fidelity (July 1962, p.44). The review called it a low-cost, compact twin-channel preamplifier-power amplifier combination, good for roughly 15 watts per channel. The unit tested was built from a kit. It took both magnetic and ceramic/crystal cartridges, and the magnetic input was loaded through a 47k-ohm resistor.
These are the concrete measured figures from that same report:
- Rated output measured at 14.6 W/ch
- THD at rated output: 2% at 60 cps and 2,000 cps; 4% at 10 kc
- Half-power distortion at 1 kc: 0.6%, staying under 1% from 85 cps upward
- Sensitivity for full output: 2.8 mV at the magnetic phono input, 75 mV at the ceramic phono input
- Tone-control characteristics were judged very desirable from a musical standpoint
Beyond that coverage, documentation is thin. No production dates, original price, schematic or circuit details have surfaced in the usual archives. If you own a KT-236A or have a catalog page for it, the Archive would welcome the details.
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