Harman Kardon

Harman/Kardon is a division of Harman International Industries and manufactures home and car audio equipment. It was founded in 1953 by Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon.

History

In the early 1950s, Sidney Harman was the general manager of the David Bogen Company, a leading manufacturer of public address systems at the time, while Bernard Kardon was the chief engineer for the same company. Due to management changes at Bogen in the early 1950s, both men resigned, and with $5,000 investment from each, formed the Harman Kardon Company in 1953.

In the 1950s Harman Kardon designed some of the first high fidelity audio products that helped fuel the Hi Fi business (see section, "Receiver milestones"). Integrated receivers (combining the tuner, preamplifier and power amplifier) was an idea to introduce and provide high fidelity performance in a single unit. At the time, integrated high fidelity receivers were not new. For example, Scott Radio Laboratories manufactured such items in the late 1930s. In 1954, the Festival D1000 would be the world's first AM/FM Compact (a forerunner of today's integrated receiver) Hi-Fi Receiver. By 1956 Bernard Kardon decided to retire and sold his interest to Sidney Harman. As the sole head of HK, he continued to keep HK as a technical leader in Hi Fi products. Sidney Harman would change the name to Harman International, but the receivers, tuners and amplifiers were still branded Harman Kardon. The name continues presently. In 1969 Harman bought the major speaker manufacturer JBL.