alsterfan

Here is an addendum to my notes from Apr 09 2009. After separating the preamp and main amp sections I put my 30 year old Yamaha C-2A preamp in between, i.e. using the HK tuner and main amp. And what shall I say, I now understand why quite a few people are using the HK 930 as an amp alone! With this combination this Harman Kardon sounds a lot better - and it wasn´t bad at all before the mod. And what is even more, the impressing improvement of the musical details and the soundstage can be experienced even with the above mentioned (still ugly) RFT B 4124 boxes, which I`m still using. Before I made this step, I was sort of sceptical, if these very simple boxes could benefit at all from the reference Yamaha C-2A (vintage stuff really belonging to two different worlds). Now I know better and am glad that I have made this experiment. For those of you who, like me, are interested in technical aspects of vintage high fidelity, but don´t know very much what it´s all about, here is a German address of a very talented, skillful restorer of vintage stuff, showing in pictures and mostly understandable words what he is working on at the moment and how he "cures the babies": http://hifi.harald-muss-bleiben.de/thread-958.html I´m sure you will like this address.

Hi Preston Tom, you are right with the two lines. Those having white lights are of a slightly more modern built. This does not necessarily mean they sound better. If you search on scandinavian forums (especially those from Norway, where Tandberg came from) you will find many Tandberg fans saying the older the better, i.e. Tandberg Huldra 10, Tandberg solvsuper 12.

Searching for inexpensive bookshelf-speakers I came across tiny and ugly ones called RFT B 4124. Each box has just one loudspeaker with no frequency-separating filter providing for all frequencies you need. The sound is very transparent especially in high and midwave frequencies (female vocals like Sara K., Patricia Barber sound gorgeous). But even the bass is impressing regarding the small volume of 5L. You simply cannot go wrong trying these since they go on ebay for 15-30€ ! As far as I know RFT does no longer exist. It was a company building audio equipment in the former GDR. If you want to know more about RFT and what the B 4124 looks like here´s a link: http://www.rft-hifigeraete.de/9465.html

Though being a fan of HK 930 for about 35 years I wondered what other brands had to offer. Having read quite a lot of praises concerning the Tandberg TR 2075 I finally decided to get one. So I have had the opportunity for a few weeks now to compare both receivers. Regarding the technical data, sheer power is in favour of the Tandberg (2x75W vs 2x45W). But what a surprise to find out that the HK 930 is the better choice concerning the sound. The Tandberg, sounding more analytic, at first impressed me revealing maybe a bit more details in the mid-frequencies but overall it lacks warmth of sound and what is even more in this comparison it sounds a bit flat, the music (especially vocals) is very much in the foreground. The HK 930 however has "body" around the vocals and solo instruments which is pure joy to listen to. The reason for this seems to be the impressing way the HK 930 provides for bass (now I know what HBDRbuilder is talking about). At this point I want to mention another surprise concerning the HK 150+. Although being stronger than the 930 its sound is much nearer to the Tandberg than to the 930. To be fair, in one aspect the Tandberg 2075 seems to sound slightly better: Listening to FM the tuner has a bit more warmth and body than the HK 930. The last surprise I want to bring home to you concerns the speakers I made this comparison with. Since using the HK only when surfing in the internet (and not when concentrating on music alone) I was looking for bookshelf-speakers not needing much space. The guy servicing my receivers ( http://www.huether-net.de/ak-index.shtml) showed me tiny but ugly RFT B 4124 boxes, produced in the former GDR at the end of the 80s. These sound excellent with an overwhelming transparency you would not expect from loudspeakers of that size (5L) and simple built quality. What is even more: At the moment the price on ebay ranges from 15-30€! You simply can´t go wrong giving them a try. If you want to know what they look like and to have some technical data, here´s a link for you: http://www.rft-hifigeraete.de/9465.html http://www.peppermint-guido.de/rftboxen.htm