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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc.

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Old 21st Sep 2018, 8:14 pm   #21
Ted Kendall
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Default Re: Soviet HI-FI

Studer wouldn't have minded shifting some A700 bits - they were reported as having laid down a large production line for the type in anticipation of high sales. As it is, production petered out at just over 20,000 - not bad, but paltry compared to hundreds of thousands of A77s. Cost was probably the main reason - although cheap for a studio-standard machine, it launched at around £600 - around twice the price of the A77, and went over £2000 before production ended.
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Old 21st Sep 2018, 8:46 pm   #22
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Default Re: Soviet HI-FI

Sometimes the same problem draws the same solution out of different people, or designers are just inspired by something and follow it in general terms.

What would be stronger evidence of copying would be if there was a known design error/defect or out and out whoopsie that was known in say the A700 and found in the Soviet recorder.

Otherwise designers around the world saw that it made sense to put tape recorder reels side-by-side and not stack them, to mount jet engines off the wing not inside them, to distribute AC power... etc etc and many many ideas spread. The exceptions are in the minority.

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Old 21st Sep 2018, 9:11 pm   #23
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Default Re: Soviet HI-FI

Fascinating... and enlightening! I wonder what the 'internal market' would have been for such gear in the Soviet times? I'm thinking it would have been more for recording-studios, colleges/universities, broadcasters and such rather than the domestic consumer.

I've always been intrigued by the way the Soviet-bloc nations adapted Western [and sometimes Japanese] designs to incorporate whatever technology was available locally. Sometimes they were brilliant kludges, othertimes horrible,obsolete labour-intensive mashups.

The "Foreign Economic Association Mashpriborintorg" - (Машприборинторг) distributed Soviet-made electronics/optical stuff to the West - I well remember their ads for 'vega' radios in the 1960s.
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Old 21st Sep 2018, 9:39 pm   #24
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Default Re: Soviet HI-FI

Was quite big internal market for hi-fi, demand was usually bigger then supply.
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Old 21st Sep 2018, 9:44 pm   #25
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Originally Posted by Michael Maurice View Post
Regarding the mechanics, its quite likely that a complete deck was bought in from say Switzerland for the Revox and Japan for the Akai/Tascam deck and these were married to Soviet style electronics and ergonomic design.

Post 6 looks like a Revox A700 chassis but with probably Soviet electronics

Post 8

Picture 1 looks like a cross between an Akai and a Revox.

Picture 2 looks like a Tascam

Picture 3 looks like a Revox A700 right down to the tension sensor rollers but with probably Soviet electronics and styling

Picture 4 looks like an Akai

Picture 5 looks like a cross between an Akai and a Philips.
Especially the "cross" observations scream "clones" or "copies", not bought in. Akai and Revox or Akai and Philips aren't brands that usually share their developments directly so if it looks a hybrid between their designs, it probably wasn't made by them. Of course, other models could still be bought in.
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Old 22nd Sep 2018, 8:55 am   #26
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DromkaTV

Thanks for sharing the photos of the reel to reel machines. Very interesting

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Old 22nd Sep 2018, 10:46 am   #27
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They didn't reverse engineer much consumer stuff as it's a difficult and expensive process. It was mostly done to provide commercial and military equipment which had US export restrictions - PDP-11 computers, B29 bombers, that sort of thing. Anybody who has been inside a Selena B215 radio will confirm that the design is very idiosyncratic.
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Old 22nd Sep 2018, 11:16 am   #28
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I bow to Michael's far superior knowledge of the A700!
Was the A700 deck the same as the Studer B67? I assume that would have been easier to obtain as a bare deck. Do you think that the deck was bought in or copied?
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Old 22nd Sep 2018, 12:49 pm   #29
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I don't think it was always copying in the Eastern block ...
I've certainly never come across another radio with the Rigonda electro-mechanical system where a small servo motor drove the tuning mechanism.

It was a very weird sensation to tune right across the Medium Waveband and feet the tuning knob twitch as it attempted to lock on each carrier as it passed over it! I don't remember any UK set with AFC on AM, either.

Their radiograms were interesting - separate floor standing speakers, a high gloss finish at a time when UK manufacturers had gone for more muted finishes in the main, and very long legs for the main unit which weren't so popular.

This was resolved in later production by the simple expedient of send two sets of legs - the original long ones and shorter set!

Overall performance was excellent and at a very reasonable price, although that is probably verging on politics again so I'll stop there.
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Old 22nd Sep 2018, 1:53 pm   #30
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Not exactly hi-fi, but my pride and joy when I was in my early teens was a VEF204 multi-band receiver. Great set, complete with clunky turret-tuner style wavechange switch. The mains adaptor was something to behold. Roughly the size of a PP9, it was housed in a cardboard box - I kid you not - with no insulation anywhere inside.
Not to be outdone, my Dad bought its bigger brother with VHF as well. It had an external speaker socket, so when he tired of it I connected a 12" cabinet to it and listened to Alan Freeman's Saturday show every week - fantastic sound quality leading my friends to think it was a full-blown hi-fi system.
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Old 22nd Sep 2018, 2:29 pm   #31
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The innards of the first machine look very Philips-cum-Grundig to my eyes.
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Old 22nd Sep 2018, 5:20 pm   #32
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This picture was taken off the utube video, though blurred, it shows, the tension sensors, the brakes and the heads which all look as though they're out of an A700. even the rear shot shows the pulley where the tape counter belt would have gone, exactly like an A700.

The Studer B67 took over from the short lived Studer A67 which as far as I know was an A700 deck with different electronics.

Whether the Studer or the Revox came first I dont know.
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Old 22nd Sep 2018, 5:26 pm   #33
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So, I can show you other things, the most interesting is Vega mp-122s, 6-motor direct drive deck, soviet construction inside.
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Old 22nd Sep 2018, 5:39 pm   #34
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Very impressive.
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Old 22nd Sep 2018, 6:14 pm   #35
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So, I can show you other things,
Could you show us a detailed picture of this machine Click image for larger version

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ID:	169711 but with the front cover removed
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Old 22nd Sep 2018, 6:34 pm   #36
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Okay, a bit later, I'm in the hospital right now.
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Old 22nd Sep 2018, 9:06 pm   #37
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Hope you're OK

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Old 23rd Sep 2018, 1:21 am   #38
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Could you show us a detailed picture of this machine Attachment 169711 but with the front cover removed
http://www.1001hifi.com/reeel-to-reel-classics.html
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Old 23rd Sep 2018, 7:44 am   #39
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Interesting stuff and impressive one handed tape threading on the video : ) Also in the video was a shot of the back of one deck which showed a logic board stuffed with IC's, did the USSR make IC's? I presume your hifi dates from the 80's yes? Would be interested in seeing the insides of a Soviet amplifier.

Lastly is Soviet built hifi easy to find? Hope you have nothing serious, get well soon, Andy.
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Old 23rd Sep 2018, 8:17 am   #40
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Originally Posted by Diabolical Artificer View Post
Interesting stuff and impressive one handed tape threading on the video : ) Also in the video was a shot of the back of one deck which showed a logic board stuffed with IC's, did the USSR make IC's? I presume your hifi dates from the 80's yes? Would be interested in seeing the insides of a Soviet amplifier.

Lastly is Soviet built hifi easy to find? Hope you have nothing serious, get well soon, Andy.
Sure. For example, soviet CD player, using Sanyo laser head.
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