| Based in Woodbury, New York USA, Harman Kardon is a division of Harman International Industries, specializing in the manufacture and development of home and car audio equipment, telematics, and a real-time operating system called QNX. Dr. Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon founded the company in 1953, inspired by a deep interest in music and arts. The company is responsible for the emergence of the high-fidelity audio industry. Harman Kardon introduced the world’s first true high-fidelity FM tuner-receiver, the Festival D1000. Following the success of the Festival D1000, another first of the world, the Festival TA230 stereo receiver was launched, in 1958.
Several firsts developed by the company, which laid the foundation for futuristic entertainment electronics include the first ultra wide-bandwidth amplifier, the Citation II (1959); the first cassette deck with Dolby* B noise reduction, the CAD5 (1970); and the first high-current-capability amplifier, the Citation XX (1980). Recent developments include the DPR 1001 Digital Path Receiver that features a high quality receiver to carry fully digital signal path from input to speaker outputs. Pioneering technologies such as Logic 7® and VMAx® Virtual Theater multi-channel audio processing and EzSet automatic speaker-level calibration incorporated in many Harman-Kardon products are developed by Harman International Industries, Incorporated.
Dr. Harman and renowned trumpet player Wynton Marsalis launched a music education program by the name “Harman: How to Listen” to encourage consumers to explore sound and music in 1996. Harman Kardon, a subsidiary of Harman International shares the belief that “listening is important in music and important in life”. A division of Harman International Industries, Harman Infotainment, is responsible for developing multifunctional infotainment systems for prominent names in the automotive manufacturing industry such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche, and Audi. Its consumer electronics division, Harman Consumer Systems Group (HCSG), undertakes research and development of high-fidelity loudspeakers, audio and video equipments. and multimedia systems for implementation in houses, automobiles and personal computers. JBL, Infinity, Harman Kardon, Mark Levinson, Revel, Audioaccess, and Lexicon are the brands under which the company offers its technology products to the consumers. |
