Bogen DB130

The troops came home after World War Two and many went to college on the GI bill, got good jobs, then settled down to enjoy decades of atomic age nuclear family bliss. One pastime they discovered in the 50’s that has never gone away, but only gotten more popular, is the joys of Hi-Fi.

We’ve all heard the term ‘Hi-Fi’ but most probably haven’t really given much thought of it’s significance when it first became popular.   The inventions of the LP 'microgroove' and the new FM standard in the late 1940's meant that for the first time high fidelity audio media was available to the average home.   Before the introduction of the Harman Kardon ‘Festival’ D1000 all-in-one ‘Hi-Fi’ receiver in 1954, you either listened to your Dad’s wooden cathedral radio or, if you were an ‘enthusiast’ you would assemble and modify your own amps, tuners and speakers to try to get good sound. That is exactly what Bernard Kardon repeatedly found himself doing for friends and family when he was Chief Engineer of Bogen company. Inspired by the demand, he and Sidney Harman, who was the General manager of Bogen at that time, tried to convince Bogen of the appeal and opportunity of Hi-Fi, but to no avail.   Seeing the writing on the wall, they decided to put their talents and money together and start their own company – Harman Kardon – in 1953.

Their ‘Festival’ receiver and eventually their whole line of Hi-Fi components sold like crazy, a fact which finally made Bogen sit up and take notice. Within a couple years Bogen too was selling a line of Hi-Fi components, including the venerable DB130, first introduced in 1956.

When you hear “They don’t make them like they used to” THIS is what they are talking about. This is the real deal – an original American-made mono Hi-Fi. It predates 8-track tapes. It predates Japanese electronics. It predates stereo. When the ‘Greatest generation’ sat back in their over-stuffed wing-back chairs, kicked off their shoes and lit their pipes, THIS is what they were relaxing to the sound of. Undoubtedly many of these stood atop a Herman-Miller credenza under an atomic clock, adjacent to a flagstone fireplace.

The slanted tapered legs along with the graphic styling of the front panel give it a feeling of lightness, but it isn’t: it's made of heavy gauge steel, weighing a whopping 22 pounds. The first version of the amp is called the ‘brass face’ for the brass front panel. It’s not plated or fake in any way – the front panel is a solid sheet of brass.  The quality that went into these early Hi-Fi amps is attested to by how many there are still around.   These amps not only represent an important historical period, but also really do sound good when restored. 

There were three main versions of this amp sold between 1956 and 1960, all with the same basic control layout and circuit design.    It was a great design, and Bogen sold a lot of them.   Here I show the first two versions, the 'brass face' and the 'Champaign face', so called because of the color of their front panels.   The 'Champaign face' incorporated a few improvements, such as dual rectifier tubes, output tube balancing, and an extra AUX input.   The later version, designated the DB130A and called the 'Gray face' for the color of it's front panel, it's styling updated to match the latest Bogen line, was nearly identical internally to the 'Champaign face', though with the change to a single GZ34 rectifier tube.

Audio equipment sold in 1960 was more likely to be called a 'stereo' than a 'Hi-Fi', as public demand was taking over and the new two-channel format was extremely popular, with the industry readily following suit, finally seeing the end of DB130 production.