Harman/Kardon
CITATION XX
(1980 - 1984)

Launched as an "abolute amplifier" project in 1978 with the famed Matti Ottala at the helm, the CITATION XX landed in the catalogs in 1980 and in a few (rich, very rich) homes at about the same time. You don't see these that often, in fact you never do: just plain mythical.

Accompanied slightly later by a smaller combo (CITATION X-I and X-II) which you don't see that often either. In fact you never do.
The well-known view to the right is the underside of the Citation XX ; the top shows very little but for two enormous toroidal transformers !

Shown below is the optional wooden crate available for the XX as well as for the XXP preamp - needless to say : you never see these either ! But there is more to it : the crates bear a "Produced by Harman/Kardon, Woodbury NY USA"... so : were the XX and XXP really produced in Japan? H/K in the US still offers full servicing of the CITATION XX and Citation XXP...

UPDATE, nov. 22, 2008
Thanks to Joel in Tokyo or confirming what I always suspected but couldn't get the details of : the XX, XXP, X-I and X-II were designed and built in Japan by the Shin Shirasuna company in Aichi prefecture. Said Shirasuna company provided some OEM services for the Harman Group before and probably after the Citation XX series as well. The electronic design was handled by Mr Mamoru Sekiya, at Shirasuna, with the engineering recommendations of Dr Matti Ottala naturally included in the final designs. Mr Sekiya holds today a senior position at Onkyo.

The real technical meat is at hand but awaits translation from japanese to english, along a 1979 8-page interview with Dr Ottala - stay tuned !