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Sears Tuner

Now I'm curious about what's inside. :idea: I also wonder if HK actually made these HK or Sears branded receivers. :dunno:
Still cool looking though either way.
 
Dswankey said:
Sears offered a pair as well although not shown paired with Sear or H/K branded "Slimline"

View attachment 3639383
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Looking at this one, it makes me wonder if the OP's Sears receiver has a crystal phono input instead of MM. I guess if you plugged a turntable with a MM cartridge into it and the volume is low, it would mean its a crystal input.
 
Danddd said:
Nice find. Green lights too. I wonder if HK out sourced this or made in one of their factories that produced their regular HK line in Japan. That's just the old buyer in me curiosity...
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This is vintage enough that Harman-Kardon most likely built this in Plainview, New York (they built a receiver or two for E.J. Korvettes XAM brand). Harman-Kardon didn't really begin outsourcing to Japan until 2-4 years later. This looks 1967-1968, when the Jervis Corporation owned Harman-Kardon. Early transistor.
 
I've seen several pairs of those round speakers pop up at Shopgoodwill over the last two years. They always sell.
 
raiken4 said:
...Who would have thought Sears would re-brand an HK or that HK would allow it!

Or was it vice versa? :>}
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You have to remember back then Sears was HUGE and had a LOT of buying power.

As mentioned in post #26 H/K back then was owned by Jervis Corporation. My guess is they were approached by Sears to provide them with their own (Sears) branded units as Sears had a HUGE market both retail and catalog.

Fwiw Sears also had a partnership with Fisher, selling receivers labeled Sears Audio By Fisher. I'm not sure how that worked though as they were manufactured by Sanyo for Fisher
 
Dswankey said:
Fwiw Sears also had a partnership with Fisher, selling receivers labeled Sears Audio By Fisher. I'm not sure how that worked though as they were manufactured by Sanyo for Fisher
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It was technically correct (the best kind of correct) since Fisher was a Sanyo brand at the time, it's not like Sanyo was making products for a different company (that is, before they started OEMing them for Sears).
 
swechsler said:
It was technically correct (the best kind of correct) since Fisher was a Sanyo brand at the time, it's not like Sanyo was making products for a different company (that is, before they started OEMing them for Sears).
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Yeah, Sanyo OEM'd for Montgomery Ward too.
 
Dswankey said:
You have to remember back then Sears was HUGE and had a LOT of buying power.

As mentioned in post #26 H/K back then was owned by Jervis Corporation. My guess is they were approached by Sears to provide them with their own (Sears) branded units as Sears had a HUGE market both retail and catalog.

Fwiw Sears also had a partnership with Fisher, selling receivers labeled Sears Audio By Fisher. I'm not sure how that worked though as they were manufactured by Sanyo for Fisher
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It's interesting, as it depends what the strategy was. Back in the late 60's the Sears brand would have probably made more sense for their customer. Move forward to the 70s when the audio shops took off and the brands became more well known, Sears might have preferred the HK brand.

I wonder being a Chicago company if Sherwood made a number of units for Sears and Montgomery Ward.
 
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