Thread: Soviet HI-FI
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Old 21st Sep 2018, 9:04 am   #15
D Cassidy
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Default Re: Soviet HI-FI

Quote:
Originally Posted by mark_in_manc View Post
I'd be very interested to hear more about where these designs came from. I worked with a Romanian engineer (a postdoc at a university where I was working) who (pre 1990) had been employed for a while in connection with an agency whose work was to reverse-engineer products bought-in from the west, and recreate them with what was available within the soviet bloc. This struck me as a considerable engineering challenge all of itself. Today the Chinese have it somewhat easier, as companies formerly in the west export production (and subsequently sometimes R&D) with full support and insight into where the product comes from and how it is wished to develop it. Although un-credited knock offs also abound!
I totally agree.
Look at Soviet cameras, they were often Leica copies, beautifully made and a fraction of the originals cost, also look at their watches again based on others designs, they were quality and cheap. These tape machines are no different, they will be copies of high end machines, improved where necessary and sold for a considerably lower price. The main reason was to obtain foreign currency and consumer goods were a way of doing this, Soviet Russia had many trade deals with the west for machinery and it worked well for both sides, a far cry from what we see now in the world.
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