Knight (Allied Radio) KN-734 Stereo Amplifier and KN-120 AM/FM Tuner (1959)
Knight KN-734 and KN-120

Sorry for the rather poor picture--I'll get a better one at some point in the future. The Sharp CD player on the top was simply being used for testing at the time this picture was taken.

These two pieces represent my first adventure into tube-based high fidelity stereo components. I found both of them paired up at the WILL AM-FM-TV Vintage Vinyl used audio equipment sales event in 2005. They weren't cheap, but both pieces work pretty well and sound great. I play them into a fairly nice set of Sansui stereo speakers.

The amplifier itself is built around 4xEL84 tubes and has a lot of power available. It has no problem driving the attached speakers up to a very high level of volume if I ask it to do so. As an interesting side, I was always rather skeptical of the claim that the sound from an amplifier built around vacuum tubes is much "warmer" than that coming from a solid state amplifier, but it seems to very definitely be true, at least in the case of this amplifier.

The tuner comes from a time when a standard and widely accepted method of stereo broadcasting hadn't yet been implemented. As such, it features an early approach to receiving stereo broadcasts--when the AM/FM selector switch is set to the middle position,  FM is played through one speaker while AM plays through another. The listener would tune to one half of the stereo program on FM and the other on AM. This system didn't take off, as it required a fairly complex receiver capable of receiving from both bands simultaneously. (Most receivers made both then and now share circuitry between the AM and FM bands and therefore cannot receive both at the same time.) This approach to receiving stereo radio programming didn't really take off, primarily because the AM portion of the broadcast could not match the audio quality of the FM portion. The expense of the circuit design and extra components also didn't work to the favor of this system. Radio stations might have rejected the idea as well--it was difficult

A few stereo radios of this time featured multiple methods of receiving stereo programming. Some featured not only the ability to received mixed-signal broadcasts, but also the modern "FM multiplex" system that is in use today. This set is not so equipped, but it does have a connector to accept an external FM stereo decoder. I don't yet have one of those. Instead, I have chosen to use a Kenwood analog AM/FM stereo tuner when I want to hear FM stereo programming.

As a side effect of the method used to receive stereo programming, the AM section of this tuner is of very high quality and does a good job of receiving AM radio broadcasts.
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