Anyone remember HART?

[tunes 10+ year member]

Back in the 90s HART made some of the best speakers out there. I remember their Pro 12" was the first sub that really impressed me - I remember it sounding a lot like a 13W7, although that's probably just because nothing was high-excursion back then and subs were always the weakest link in a system.

I still have a pair of their top of the line components, and would use them if I still gave a **** about car audio; I can't think of any components today that use crossover parts close to the Tesla paper-in-oils in the Harts. Maybe I'll sell them, but I doubt anyone would buy. In any case, I'm surprised I never hear anyone mention this company when speaking about great "old school" gear. Hart and the old, white Hifonics amps were what got me into car audio.

So, anyone remember HART stuff back when the company made good products? I'm not talking about the Chinese garbage that started being produced under their name around the year 2000.

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[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

I remember them and I remember them getting average reviews from the mags at the time when they were reviewed.

 

[tunes 10+ year member]

I've never really paid much attention to magazine reviews so I can't comment one way or another, but I appreciate the old dump in the punchbowl. It's been so long that I wouldn't be surprised if my memory of their sound is in fact a bit rose-tinted, so I guess anything's possible. I wonder though if anyone on here has heard their pro line stuff.

 

[dalucifer 10+ year member]

I know the owner of hart audio was the owner of Kove audio. I cant say much about hart audio, but i remember my kove audio drivers and they were great.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

They became Kove at some point in the mid 90s. The Real stuff that is. Didn't mean to rain on your parade but that was my memory of the brand from the early 90s. I'm sure that they had some gems in the lineup. Most of the companies that were little more than a flash in the pan in the late 80's early 90's did. What allowed those companies that are still around to survive was getting national exposure for their products and at the time the magazines were the only way to do that. Hart probably had a loyal local following in some areas but they never made it on the national level at that time. Petras was the same way. So were a lot of other bradns that no longer exist. The Hart sub that I remember being reviewed was pretty well panned. The sound was described as muddy. The take-away from the situation IMHO is that if you are a small company trying to get good press to get you national exposure to grow your company you don't throw your budget driver out there to the wolves unless it is a real standout in its class. The JL 10W1 was the perfect example of how to generate good press.

 

[snoopdan 5,000+ posts]

I remember the Hart "attacks" back in the day. I remember reading about them in some car audio mag back then, and they were listed in the April manufactures edition.

 

[tunes 10+ year member]

helotaxi, you make excellent points and by no means did you "rain on my parade," - I'm just happy people remember these long forgotten companies at all. Regional popularity is certainly a factor that I think is not taken into consideration often enough. Where I live no one had heard of Phoenix Gold when I bought my M series amps, although in other parts they had already established a die hard following.

The reason HART interests me is because I can think of dozens of old amplifiers from that era that I'd take over practically anything made today - PPI Art series, Phoenix Gold, Hifonics, Zapco, Earthquake, hell, even Phase Linear - but can't think of any particularly memorable speakers (not to say HART speakers are better than anything today, just saying that IMO they were better than anything else I tried at their time). It just seems like for the most part amps just got more boring and more shoddily made, while everything else in car audio improved exponentially. But I digress...