Playback receiver lineage

[Watthour]

I saw this perusing the interwebs auctions and while the name is familiar the manufacturer of the piece is a mystery. It has nuances of early '70s Pioneer with a bit of a Marantz/Kenwood design to the chassis. Any idea of the origins of this house-branded box?

http://pictures1.kyozou.com/pictures.aspx?id=0&prdet=11258793

It is identified as a "Playback 550SX" receiver.

 

[KrisM]

Those knobs remind me of those early Sansui units that had dual, left and right adjustment.
I seem to remember a thread awhile back that had pictures of gear with "weird" names of popular gear.

 

[Dr Tinear]

Looks like Foster to me -- similar to several Realistic models from the early to mid 1970s that came from that source.

 

[aileenamegan]

In fact, many parts seemed to be taken from Sansui. But the inside design looks like a mixture of Sansui and Kenwood.
The back however has no similarity with both brands.