Grabbed A Harman/Kardon TA-230 Yesterday

[JPNH]

Decided to grab a TA-230 yesterday for a decent price. It needs to be refurbished. Caps, tubes etc etc.

Not a bad sounding or looking receiver. Though the phono preamp is nowhere near as nice sounding as my 340b. Maybe once fixed up that will change. Wish it had the third speaker output, but I guess that was on the TA-260.

Haven't had much experience working on HK stuff except for a Church badged TA-X3000. I imagine it's similar or easier to work on. I do like the tuning bars on the dial that move closer together with better signal strength. That's pretty neat (for 1958 anyway). Grabbed the service manual and schematic. I think it's a Photofact. Have all the NOS tubes for it so good to go..

Anyone own one that can recommend any mods etc? Thanks in advance!

Looking forward to working on it when when my parts come in.

 

[FlaCharlie]

I think these have a voltage doubler PS so it wouldn't hurt to put in better diodes and increase the capacitance of the doubler caps using better caps. Other than that I'd suggest that you just do a basic restoration before considering any mods.

This is one of the very early "stereo" receivers so you won't be able to listen to it in stereo. The reason they have the FM and AM dials arranged side by side is because this was designed before FM multiplex. Stereo records had been released and some stations broadcast their signal on both FM and AM bands, one channel on FM and the other on AM. So, if you were near one of these stations, you could tune each dial to the appropriate frequency and listen in stereo. So now, you'll only get mono.

But, as an added feature, you can listen to two different stations, AM and FM, at the same time.

 

[JPNH]

I think these have a voltage doubler PS so it wouldn't hurt to put in better diodes and increase the capacitance of the doubler caps using better caps. Other than that I'd suggest that you just do a basic restoration before considering any mods.

This is one of the very early "stereo" receivers so you won't be able to listen to it in stereo. The reason they have the FM and AM dials arranged side by side is because this was designed before FM multiplex. Stereo records had been released and some stations broadcast their signal on both FM and AM bands, one channel on FM and the other on AM. So, if you were near one of these stations, you could tune each dial to the appropriate frequency and listen in stereo. So now, you'll only get mono.

But, as an added feature, you can listen to two different stations, AM and FM, at the same time.

Thanks! Good info. I had read about the whole AM/FM/Multiplex /stereo thing, but haven't had much opportunity to study the schematic and diagrams yet. So good info and some things to watch for when I finally do have a chance. Always nice going in with a little advance knowledge!

Appreciate it!!