Harman Kardon Citation, absolute music

The search for the perfect interpretation of a masterpiece is, for many, paralleled by the search of that combination of audio gear that will bring that recording to life. I come back with a review of music making machines as I feel they deserve it.

It all started with the pretty lucky acquisition of a Harman Kardon Citation Seventeen. When I first saw it the almost fourty years of age were pretty obvious on this glorious machine until I touched and turned a couple of times the volume knob. The feeling of perfectly spaced steps spoke about a machine that made history. The work needed to make it look young once again wasn't much and soon it sat in the company of valuable team mates (the likes of Sony TA-N80ES and Infinity Rennaisance 90) and made music in a way I couldn't think possible. Unbelievable all the way. I will not go on and blab in all sorts of "audiophile" terms. I will only tell you that there is one word that describes this machine almost perfectly: space. Amazingly wide space and a gorgeous clean air filling it. It trasnports you immediately in the middle of a beautiful garden with no walls in sight and places with surgical precision all the instruments of a recording at their designated places. And they sound so natural as being happy of being liberated. It is like it is disolving itself in music and music is all that's left.
Absolute timbre fidelity, efortless dynamics, the ease of adding new instruments to a larger than life sonic picture were so effective that music became instanly a drug. You needed your continous intravenous dose in order to be able to keep going.

Needless to say that impressed to the bones by the work of Matty Ottala and Sidney Harman back in the days I made a pledge to bring along him a worthy family member to work their magic as they're supposed to. After intense detectivistic work and with mandatory percent of luck I managed to find a Harman Kardon Citation Twelve Deluxe in pristine condition. The joy was second just to the impatience of finally putting them together. But that day came and the equation of happiness finally had a solution. And what a solution this is. It is indeed a wonderful brother of the Seventeen. They share the same qualities. The twelve just takes that amazing space with every detail that seventeen so beautifully recreates and pushes them to forward with the authority and self-confidence of a great conductor. But donn't get me wrong. It is as "invisible" as its broher. You are not aware it's there. It just takes the gorgeous musical universe its brother creates and magnifies it in a completely undistorted manner. And it does it with the same unbelievable ease and lack of strain. Every nuance, every bit of directional energy, every single note, no matter what produces it is propelled so naturally.

Needless to say that from the moment the Harman Kardon family reunited in my listening setup music became as necessary as air and I rediscover the essence of the genius that went into the great musical masterpieces and their interpreters.