Harman-Kardon Citation I preamp story

[tubino]

I made a new vintage friend today.

I've had a couple of Citation I's loitering in the basement for a long time and never fired them up. I took the one with more tarnish and fewer knobs and cleaned it today. Gosh these were well-built! They must be the heaviest non-commercial preamps made. Potted transformer, filter choke in the power supply, 9 tubes, and discrete resistors in all the setings of the 4 tone controls. And so well enclosed that even one that had a hard life was very clean inside. Cleaned up pretty well all around.

After a few hours of gradually increasing voltage on a variac, it sounded good. After some switch cleaning and hooking up through a homebrew SE amp and JBL S-99s, it was sounding really good! And so many knobs and switches, I don't even understand them all! (I have the lit to read, but always go straight to playing first.)

Yet it sounded fairly clean and open, and I am thinking I have to keep one of these. Any experience out there with these? I suspect these are ignored by a lot of tube guys because of the complexity, and it's not like you can just bypass the controls -- the gain sections are not so readily separable from the controls. And PHASE INVERSION is a good thing to have!

Now I can understand why some people take the time to rebuild these. (Great winter project!) And they are a bitch to work on just because of parts count. But still...

 

[tubino]

Photo of HK Cit 1 from back, nekkid

That PCB is just for ONE CHANNEL. Mirroring it is another for the other channel. I like the design with the tubes sticking out the back, but all the components enclosed and shielded. These things must have cost a fortune compared to a Dyna PAS or Eico HF-85.

 

[crooner]

Those Citation I preamps are pretty sweet. Less "radical" in design than the companion Citation II power amp (12BY7 drivers on that one!).

These pioneering "Ultrawideband" designs set the standard back then. Designed by the great Stu Hegeman.

I believe Sheldon Stokes has done quite a few restorations on these and even has a cap board available. A Google search on the subject should yield good results.

Best regards,

crooner

 

[tubino]

Discrete resistors for each step of each tone control

Four controls (bass & treble, left and right) like the one on the right in the picture. Can you imagine what this would cost to make today???

 

[crooner]

Yep, HK pulled all the stops with these designs. Overbuilt to the max.
Hegeman was fanatical about his work and it shows.

 

[tubino]

Originally posted by crooner
Hegeman was fanatical about his work and it shows.

What other pieces did Hegeman design? I've heard he did the Lafayette KT-300 and KT-600 (mono and stereo preamps), and these sound great (I've got a pair of the KT-300s)

 

[crooner]

He did the original design work on Lafayette's KT-550 amp, specially the unusual feedback loop similar to the Citation II.

He also did some solid state stuff under his own name in the 70s, IIRC.

Regards,

crooner

 

[Thatch_Ear]

You said you had two of these languishing in your basement?

 

[tubino]

Originally posted by Thatch_Ear
You said you had two of these languishing in your basement?

Not languishing anymore! I hooked up the second one yesterday, and variac'ed it up to full voltage. It works fine too! Not even much switch and pot noise. And I like the sound a LOT.

The Sheldon Stokes tip was a very good one! Scroll down on this page for his write-up:
<http://www.quadesl.com/schematics.shtml>

Problem is that both units have tarnished faceplates, and both are missing a knob. Ultrafine steel wool may bring back the faceplate shine -- at the expense of the lettering, which I don't think is etched... I need help solving this one.

I'm definitely going to sell off the other vintage preamps (Heath AA-141, AA-141A, PAS 3, Eico HF-85, etc.) before parting with these -- and already have a buddy wanting a Cit I if I can live without it -- sorry!

 

[dshoaf]

Check with Jim McShane on parts...

He's quite the expert on these and the entire Citation line. He's got parts and has just been able to source some restoration knobs, too. Google his name or post on the AudioAsylum Vintage board. He travels a bit but responds to email.

Excellent guy to work with. He's helped me through my Citation II restoration.

Cheers,

David

 

[gonzothegreat]

Put down the steel wool NOW!

Originally posted by tubino
Problem is that both units have tarnished faceplates, and both are missing a knob. Ultrafine steel wool may bring back the faceplate shine -- at the expense of the lettering, which I don't think is etched... I need help solving this one.

Do an AK search on the name Simichrome. The sh*t worked wonders on an Altec 9440A. I've also used something called Flitz. Its not as aggressive so you might have to use more elbow grease. Neither have *ever* removed *any* lettering on my gear.

I just polished up a Fisher 500 and I can literally see my reflection in the black case and the underside gleams like chrome. I should post pics.

I found my Simichrome at a motorcycle shop. I've been using Flitz as a liquidator had large bottles of it for a buck each. Should have bought more.

 

[tubino]

Re: Check with Jim McShane on parts...

Originally posted by dshoaf
He's quite the expert on these and the entire Citation line. He's got parts and has just been able to source some restoration knobs, too. Google his name or post on the AudioAsylum Vintage board. He travels a bit but responds to email.

Yes, I found McShane's pages -- good stuff! It seems I have two of the very early Cit I's, both with the plastic knobs rather than the polished metal ones... but a single set of repros would set me back $170 -- more than I paid for both units! :saywhat:

But if I can solve the faceplate problem, I'd consider it. Thanks for the tip on cleaners. And I like Sheldon Stokes' solutions (www.quadesl.com) for the filter caps and RCA jacks -- thanks for that tip too!

 

[Thatch_Ear]

If it is just a film of stuff you can use the car polish NuFinish. It leaves lettering intact, is a good cleaner and leaves protection. I have used it for instance on the chassis'of Dyna ST-70s, polished them up but the lettering was left intact. Works like a charm to get smoker's grunge off without damaging the surface.

 

[Thatch_Ear]

Tell me about the PAS in case the one I am trying to get falls through or is a junker. Good phono stage, which is my concern.

 

[Bluelobster]

http://pages.prodigy.net/jimmcshane/

This guy is the GURU of all things tube Citation. Read his page and gain his wisdom!

 

[Thatch_Ear]

McShane has always seemed a great guy on RAT. No flames, you can trust what he says and he does really know his stuff on the Citations.
Don't know that there is good Grasshopper material here though. But you tell him we said "Hay!"

 

[tubino]

Originally posted by Thatch_Ear
If it is just a film of stuff you can use the car polish NuFinish.

No such luck. I think it's pretty deep oxidation. I'll pick a spot where there's no lettering and test some things.

I really think what's needed is to polish it totally and re-silk screen it. Too bad I don't know how to do that.

 

[gonzothegreat]

Originally posted by tubino
No such luck. I think it's pretty deep oxidation. I'll pick a spot where there's no lettering and test some things.

I really think what's needed is to polish it totally and re-silk screen it. Too bad I don't know how to do that.

Check out the A500 Wardsweb cleaned up with Simichrome

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8479&highlight=simichrome

Try Simichrome or Flitz before anything else. Most other metal polishes I've used strip lettering and decals. You would be surprised at how well Simichrome works. I think they sell it on ebay. If you want some Flitz, I have a bottle or two if you can't find it locally.

First I cut an old towel into small strips about 4" x 8". Then I apply the cleaner to the rag (folded into halves or thirds) and start rubbing. Soon the dirt will start caking up on the rag. Then grab another strip and start polishing. Always use seperate strips for cleaning and polishing. For some reason a caked up cleaning rag seems to work better than a clean one - go figure.

 

[tubino]

Started shining it up

Man, I had no idea how HEFTY the faceplate is on this thing. Jeez! SOLID! HEAVY!

So I took the very worst spots and started polising with #0000 steel wool. Yeah, I know I was warned ... but I was right! I wanted to see how nice it could look where there was no lettering to worry about -- and the initial results are VERY promising!

Since I started with the worst place and found that the metal quality resisted deep tarnishing, I'm confident these will come back beautifully. The only trick will be to keep from losing any lettering (duh!). I haven't located Simichrome yet, but may try Never-Dull. Or will keep calling around. I'll post pictures of the end results.

While I've got the deHavilland Aries amps and preamp for what I think is SOTA sound for contemporary tube gear, I could see putting together a second system with all vintage (pre-1964) system.

Here's how it could look, from what I have on hand now:

Tuner: Fisher FM-200
Turntable: TBD (I don't have any old ones, but I have a friend...)
RTR: Ampex 350
Preamp: HK Cit I
Amps: Eico HF-89 + pair of Lafayette LA-70s (bi-amping)
Crossovers: pair Heathkit XO-1's
Speakers: Jensen-design backloaded horns with Stephens Tru-Sonic drivers

I *like* it! I've never hooked all this stuff up together! This would be a really fun system to show folks what an audio nut in 1962 might have. And isn't this what basements are for?

 

[BlackSwamp]

If you do get a turntable, you do realize they don't have any tubes?