Klingon-Hifi made in USSR during the cold war

Klingon-Hifi made in Soviet Russia during cold war

Hallo,

I am not sure whether anybody in the USA has ever noticed,
that the former USSR (Soviet Union) manufactured some of the nicest and most ingenious
High Quality (!) Hi-Fi stuff around...
Allmost all those technical miracles were manufactured in their red spaceprogram, aircraft and weapon factory plants...
(TRUDA Mockba and AEOLUS KIEV for example)
In Germany we call it "Klingonen-Hifi" because that CCCP HiFi stuff is so extremely cool and heavy duty, that
it deserved a place in a Star Trek K´Tinga Klingon Cruiser for crew entertainment.

There is quite a huge Vintage-HIFI culture hidden in the former USSR /Russia (Klingon Empire) ...

so take a closer look here:

http://old-fidelity.de/thread-2383.html

and take some time for watching all those huge photos and schematics,
its just a very nice and most informative picture loaded German language based thread about
"Klingon Hifi" made in USSR and eastern Europe as Romania, Bulgaria, Poland...:


Soviet-Klingon "KOPBEM" super high Quality Power Amp from the late 70s and early 80s.


Klingon Bird of Prey "Dual Mono"


Soviet-Klingon KOPBEM super ingnious direct driven turtable (it´s made from re-used Titanium of scraped SS18 and SS20 nuclear-missiles)
with oil dampened anti Resonator "Bubble" Tone-Arm This nice machine was made in an airspace program plant by russian space engineers.


Klingon "K´Tinga Class" attack Cruiser, the soviet turntable might be part of her equipment.


1975 Soviet-Klingon "CMAPM" PRECEIVER, digitally controlled via touchpad and LED display.


it might have been stolen right from here...

and so on....

Kindest regards from Germany

Willy

Impressive build, plus you wouldn't have to worry about them "honoring" their warranty! Perfect for listening to Klingon opera or background music during battle. :boxing:

Interesting.

Pretty neat turntable!

That receiver is the cooolest ever!

Very interesting, thanks for the link! Where are the tubes?

Love the designs.

Wow!!!!!

Kewl stuff ! Thanks for sharing !

Two identical threads in two different forums merged.

I think April Fool's Day is early this year.

I've never trusted the Klingons and I never will. . .

Hallo,

thanks for watching our German "Klingon Hifi" thread, maybe we can also
find some USSR Hifi machines that did their way to the USA?

Anybody here owning such pieces of Hifi or Radios made in former communist
countries?

(Not only USSR, maybe also Poland or Czechoslovakia etc..)

Well, I am German, not many of my friends here can understand why I
do like russian hifi, but that doesnt bother me...
I just like the tank built quality of that "bad" stuff.
AND I love the non-conventional layout and styling of Soviet-Russian equipment design .
(allmost Klingon-like)





Russian (and some other eastern-bloc hifi)
truly is of an unusual "handmade" quality...very much like saying to the rest of the world:

"MONEY DOES NOT MATTER, WE ONLY DO THE BEST..."

A typical example of what fascinates me, is the intelligent (and expensive) construction of their stuff:
(Well I am a vintage-tech lover...and I cant even find this kind of quality in Marantz or XXL Japanese stuff,
russian Hifi is even more massive, and quite good...remarkably nice sound!)


KOPbEM 048 audio Amplifier. 2x400 Watt true RMS.

In these soviet monster amps you can even find expensive 1000 Watts (!) splitcore "ISKRA brand" Transformers
(ISKRA means: "SPARK or FLASH")
The example in this amp here was taken from airforce radar operation desk manufacturing plant "SVERDLOVSK"
Such ULTRA HEAVY DUTY MILITARY-PARTS only the soviets used for their "top of the line" Hifi.


Easy to maintain power amp housing -- it just opens up like a book,
Soviet "hifi machines" are designed from Airspace Radio-engineers so they share that "maintainability"
with professional Red Military electronical stuff...


Now thats a "klingon power plant" with plenty of nice selected low noise soviet KT Transistors made by TRUDA MOCKBA, same company installing all the electronics to soviet MIG and Sukhoi Fighter aircrafts. And this is only one single channel, the amplifier has 2 channels of that...


Even enough power for this "Klingon version" of the good old "MIG"

Other hifi from eastern bloc / (not only CCCP-Russia)
is also very much like the good old German Telefunken, DUAL and Grundig Hifi brands from the 70s and 80s.
Remarkably solid construction all around, those "eastern-bloc Amplifiers" truly are heavy duty high quality and they can perform
pretty good. (Compare this polish Unitra-HGS-Altus Amp to the better Marantz or Sansuis...)


This HGS ALTUS integrated Amplifier DUAL MONO (2x100 Watt RMS at 8 Ohms ) was made in 1985 by UNITRA / RADMOR in POLAND / KRAKOW plant, a good sounding machine ! (I have it here, and it shows that Poland also was able to build very good quality Hifi during the cold war era...) Today the RADMOR Company of Poland is manufacturing high quality missile and tank gun control electronics...in the past they also did for the Warsaw pact...


Soviet Russian Orbita Stereo de Luxe System from the 80s

Olymp 006 top of the line tape reel to reel recorder made in USSR (UKRAINA) 1987



(Of course after all those years some capacitors may need change and some pots cleaning with deoxit,
but thats the same story with all kind of vintage stuff all around the world...)

Soviet Hifi is very good, but very few people know that. (In Germany a lot of "audio enthusiasts"
just do not want to see that and tell me:
LOOKS GOOD, BUT CANT BE GOOD. )
When I ask them: "why?", they usually say soemthing like: " its from russia...."
To me that´s not an argument, because I can trust my ears and technical experience.

Kindest regards

Willy

.....along with a built-in microphone and transmitter, so that Comrade KGB can listen to you trashing the glorious Party leaders..............................

........for the LAST time.

Steve

This Soviet/East Block stuff is neat and thanks for sharing......have a cousin who visits and wonder how much is out there? Daaaqck!

I bought a commie-era TESLA VHS machine when I lived in the Czech Republic. My Czech friends laughed at me and would say "TESLA....teknicky slaby" [technologically poor]

Hallo,
Tesla was using lots of Philips patents under true Philips licence... (Not stolen patents )
their CD Players used 100% Philips TDA 1740 and TDA1741 boards and processors,
the Czech VHS might be a clone of a former Philips machine...
Tesla made some good stuff too, I have speakers from Tesla, they sound as good
as contemporary Grundig speakers.. good.

Best regards

Willy

Interesting thanks for posting

I'd love to see one of those KOPBEM turntables in person. That's pretty far out.

daviddeep said:

I'd love to see one of those KOPBEM turntables in person. That's pretty far out.

Click to expand...

Yeah i seriously want one, but they are for 50hz power, i think that would be problematic over there.