Soviet HI-FI and its creators: the journey of the Brig of the “captain” Lihnitsky
This post is a pilot in a series of publications about cult equipment in Soviet audio equipment. We promised this cycle a relatively long time ago, but somehow we didn’t reach our hands. The series of articles will include several UMZCH, vinyl players, and high fidelity loudspeakers. In other words, I will write about the devices that have left a mark in the history of the USSR, and for many have become symbols of the era. I will try not to ignore the history of the creation of these devices, as well as some significant moments in the biography of their creators.
I suppose it will be fair to dedicate the first publication to the amplifier “Brig” and its creators Anatoly Lihnitsky and Alla Kalyaeva, as the pioneers of serial HI-FI in the USSR. I admit that it is not uncommon that I am ironic about Lihnitsky’s marginal views on sound and some aspects of circuit design that this person wrote a lot about at the end of his life, which doesn’t detract from his merits as an engineer and organizer of works on the creation of the first Soviet HI-FI UMZCH. It should also be noted a significant contribution to the creation of the amplifier engineer Nikolai Slesarev and designer Vladimir Rataev.
Before you talk about the creation of "Brig", it makes sense to tell about the time when it was created, and describe some features of the Soviet market for audio. To many, especially those who do not remember the “scoop”, it may seem that I exaggerate, but I dare to assure you that this is not at all the case.
')
In the 70s, the so-called period of “Brezhnevsky stagnation”, the USSR was a country with a tremendous scientific and technological base, the country constantly conducted promising advanced developments in various areas ... But, unfortunately, almost all of these areas united their attitude towards aerospace industry, or to the military-industrial complex. At the same time, almost everything related to equipment for everyday life, in particular, audio, was considered to be deeply secondary and was done very badly, well, or at least bearable.
The most common arguments of those who at that time considered the production of high-quality sound-reproducing apparatus in the USSR were the following:
Electron-20: a typical Soviet amplifier
As a result of the misconceptions that were then occurring and the lack of motivation of the respective branches of the Soviet power, the creation of high fidelity equipment became the lot of enthusiasts. One of these people was Anatoly Likhnitsky, who in 1970 came the idea of creating the perfect amplifier. In fact, Likhnitsky swung not even on HI-FI, but on Hiend concept.
He himself wrote about it this way:
The matter went, and the engineer of medical technology, Anatoly Likhnitsky, with a mechanic, Strakhov, created a system with characteristics unattainable for Soviet production models.
The amplifier of this system will later be turned into a serial "Brig".
It is the circuit design of this amplifier, created using a symmetric quasi-complementary output stage, and became the basis of the future "Brig". According to Likhnitsky, his brainchild "outplayed" and his own lamp developments on the 64 and one of the legendary tube amplifiers "Dynaco".
In the early 1970s, all amplifiers available to Soviet citizens, such as “Electronics B1-01”, (as well as their fellows, built into the bodies of record players and reel-to-reel recorders), were not only inferior to Western analogs, but were worse in literally all objective and subjective parameters. Not surprisingly, the idea of the emergence of high-quality audio equipment by 1975 was also realized by the ruling minority.
The leaders of the branch departments of the USSR understood that the low level of quality of consumer goods is fraught with obtaining a sensitive kick from the politburo for lagging behind the west - this was fully applied to audio equipment. In addition to objective necessity, there was a provoking initiative from below. Mostly enthusiastic engineers were in favor of the Soviet HI-FI, who more than others understood that the capabilities of the technological and production base allowed it to be produced.
The key decision on the creation of Brig was made by the head of the 10th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry N. Sviridov. It was this man, a former employee of the Leningrad radio, who was known for reporting from aburning tank during the blockade of Leningrad, and was in charge of the Ocean Pribor association. Among other things, Sviridov was a passionate audiophile music lover and attended parties where he had the opportunity to evaluate the quality of cool western equipment. Realizing the need for analogues of the bourgeois curiosities in the country of advice, the official created a direction for the development and production of high-quality equipment.
The party said that the amplifier needs to be done by 1975. The development was entrusted to the consumer goods department (read between the letters “HI-FI equipment”), which was structurally part of the Ocean Pribor subdivision with the maritime name of the Scientific Research Institute Morphyspribor. The head of the department was Candidate of Science Alla Kalyaeva. According to rumors, it was this influential woman, known in the circle of Petersburg philophonists, who “broke through” at the head (Sviridov) the creation of the HI-FI direction.
Sviridov and Kalyaeva, who knew Lihnitsky from musiclovers to closed meetings for a narrow circle with listening to equipment, invited a talented engineer to participate in the project.
Likhnitsky, who worked in the field of uninteresting medical equipment for him, happily agreed. As soon as the discussion broke out that you can quickly design and launch into a series, Anatoly Lyhnitsky said that the best option is his amplifier mod. 1970s. The proposal was accepted, after 3 months the first prototype saw the light, and after 2 years of torment, the Brig appeared.
During the development process, a group of engineers, and first of all, Likhnitsky and Kalyaeva, faced a number of serious technical, production and, as often happened in the Soviet Union, organizational problems.
At the design stage, the main problem was transistors. In the Likhnitsky amplifier, they were germanium, the use of which was not intended in the new product. The transition to silicon assumed a change in the output stage scheme. The problem was solved by processing the initial quasi-complementary variant.
It served as the basis for the creation of a voltage amplifier , which was included in the serial “Brig” circuit. Processing made it possible to use low-voltage silicon transistors CT 808A in the terminal. As Likhnitsky later noted, the output cascade solution was close to the Peter Walker scheme used in the Quad 303.
One of the interesting engineering solutions, which was borrowed for other Soviet HI-FI amplifiers, became discrete tone switches for 24 positions. The design was simply copied from German samples, which the author of "Brig" found at home. By the way, Anatoly Lihnitsky was a great connoisseur of German audio of the 30s - 40s.
At the initial stage of development, organizational difficulties could not be avoided. According to Likhnitsky, he was the informal leader of the group that developed the Brig. However, his position in the department’s structure seemed precarious to him.
The department consisted of 3 sectors:
• Development Sector;
• Design sector;
• A group of designers.
Kalyaeva - head of the topic, Lihnitsky - head of the main areas of research.
Anatoly Likhnitsky
Later, by chance, Anatoly will take the place of the head of the development sector (which is an impressive career growth for a non-party Likhnitsky), whose duties he partially performed before. Having obtained a legitimate authority in the sector, the engineer structures the unit entrusted to him and creates several groups. A special place was occupied by the “resource group”. The best thing about this in his memoirs was written by Likhnitsky himself:
At the stage of production of the first serial "Brig" also was not without problems. The mass production of the amplifier was to take place at the Vodtranspribor factory. Collectors, tuners and other qualified proletariat of the plant did not really want to change the prestigious bread machinery for the unpromising in terms of salary "Brig". The first serially produced amplifiers began to burn when tuning. Likhnitsky and Kalyaev were tried to be accused of creating a “sample not suitable for serial production”, but, as Lyhnitsky put it, “Clouds thickened” over the heads of the developers. Later the cleverly planned sabotage was uncovered and the amplifiers ceased to burn.
The presentation of the first brigs took place before the official release and even before the appearance of serial amplifiers. In 1974, prototypes were ready. After proper testing, Sviridov, Kalyaeva and Likhnitsky decided to demonstrate the hope of Soviet music lovers, Butome, Minister of the shipbuilding industry.
Butoma Boris Evstakhievich - Minister who gave the nod to the "Brig"
Impressed by the newborn Soviet Haifa, the Minister invited Leonid Gorshkov, the chief party audiophile, deputy chairman of the Military Industrial Commission under the CPSU Central Committee, to the presentation.
hero soc. Labor and Audiophile - Gorshkov Leonid Ivanovich
Gorshkov's reaction was enthusiastic. The only question the official asked was which transistors are used in the amplifier. The result of the presentation was the possibility of using tantalum capacitors and other deficient elements, which were previously used only in the defense industry, as well as an impressive cash prize for developers, for serial samples of the Brig. It is also known that after the "show" in Botuma's office, Gorshkov arranged the spraying under the control of VNIIRPA (whose leaders unsuccessfully tried to get Hyfaye to do), where as a result of the disassembly that followed the separation, the head of the amplifiers laboratory died.
"Brig 001" - an early version
After the long-suffering serial "Brig" went on sale, an unprecedented stir began. It was possible to get the amplifier only thanks to a surprisingly good pull and with a surcharge of at least 25 Soviet rubles (a quarter of an engineer’s monthly salary).
At the Leipzig trade fair amplifier received a gold medal. By 1977, the Brig was actively exported to the UK, France and Australia. The specialists of the British company Afif Ltd., which exported Brig, acknowledged that the amplifier fully complied with the HI-FI standard and all the requirements of the western market.
The serial "Brig" possessed characteristics that in many ways surpassed the more expensive and, most importantly, the "non-obtainable" Western components in the USSR:
• output rated power: 2 × 50 W (with a load of 4 ohms);
• nominal reproducible frequency range with non-uniformity of frequency response ± 0.7 dB: 20 ... 25 000 Hz;
• harmonic coefficient in the frequency range of 40 ... 16 000 Hz: 0.1%;
• intermodulation distortion ratio: 0.15%;
• crosstalk attenuation between channels in the range of 250-10000 Hz: 40 dB;
• signal / noise ratio relative to nominal output power for line input: 86 dB;
• power consumption: 150 W;
• overall dimensions: 452 × 372 × 118 mm;
• weight: 15 kg;
• retail price in the USSR: 625 rubles;
• retail price in the UK: £ 300 pounds in 1976 (now £ 1500).
“Brig” was, if not the first, then one of the first HI-FI devices in the USSR, in many ways setting the bar high and predetermining the development of other amplifiers of high fidelity playback. The experience of its developers was useful to many who created the HI-FI equipment in the following years. Circuit design and engineering solutions created for the "Brig", predetermined the development of such amplifiers as: "Amfiton 002", "Odyssey 010" and "Pulsar".
Anatoly Likhnitsky
Despite my ironic attitude to some views of Likhnitsky and his frank pseudoscientific delusionalization in the network (although there is also an opinion that it was a subtle banter), I believe that he was one of those who formed the ideology of high fidelity of reproduction in the Country of Soviets and made no small contribution to the creation of equipment in the framework of this ideology. Moreover, it was he, Kalyaeva and all those who took off working on Brig, proved the possibility of creating mass high-quality audio equipment in the USSR. "Brig" has become one of the best devices of its time in terms of price / quality ratio (characteristics), its capabilities are still superior to many modern samples. The release of the amplifier lasted until 1989. Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky died in 2013, the year.
I suppose it will be fair to dedicate the first publication to the amplifier “Brig” and its creators Anatoly Lihnitsky and Alla Kalyaeva, as the pioneers of serial HI-FI in the USSR. I admit that it is not uncommon that I am ironic about Lihnitsky’s marginal views on sound and some aspects of circuit design that this person wrote a lot about at the end of his life, which doesn’t detract from his merits as an engineer and organizer of works on the creation of the first Soviet HI-FI UMZCH. It should also be noted a significant contribution to the creation of the amplifier engineer Nikolai Slesarev and designer Vladimir Rataev.
Freedom of creativity of the engineer, as the perceived need for a HI-FI amplifier
Before you talk about the creation of "Brig", it makes sense to tell about the time when it was created, and describe some features of the Soviet market for audio. To many, especially those who do not remember the “scoop”, it may seem that I exaggerate, but I dare to assure you that this is not at all the case.
')
In the 70s, the so-called period of “Brezhnevsky stagnation”, the USSR was a country with a tremendous scientific and technological base, the country constantly conducted promising advanced developments in various areas ... But, unfortunately, almost all of these areas united their attitude towards aerospace industry, or to the military-industrial complex. At the same time, almost everything related to equipment for everyday life, in particular, audio, was considered to be deeply secondary and was done very badly, well, or at least bearable.
The most common arguments of those who at that time considered the production of high-quality sound-reproducing apparatus in the USSR were the following:
- The qualitative elements that exist in the USSR are used only for defense, everything that goes to consumer goods is inferior in quality;
- It’s enough for a Soviet person that there is, and aesthetic music lovers with amateur radio experience are also soldering so-so, and in general, this is all
from the evil one’sluxury for damned capitalists in the decaying west; - In the USSR, they are not able to do anything, and all the valuable personnel who would be able to do this are working for the defense industry, or emigrated
to Israelabroad; - To overcome the backlog of the USSR in terms of circuit design, design ideas and design of high-quality equipment from the West takes decades.
Electron-20: a typical Soviet amplifier
As a result of the misconceptions that were then occurring and the lack of motivation of the respective branches of the Soviet power, the creation of high fidelity equipment became the lot of enthusiasts. One of these people was Anatoly Likhnitsky, who in 1970 came the idea of creating the perfect amplifier. In fact, Likhnitsky swung not even on HI-FI, but on Hiend concept.
He himself wrote about it this way:
“It began with the fact that me and my familiar mechanic B. Strakhov wanted to create (of course, for themselves) a super system for playing stereo records. We agreed to make two of its sample at the limit of our capabilities, without limiting their cost and size. My task was to design a system, make drawings, install and customize the fabricated samples. Strakhov undertook to get everything, and to manufacture individual parts and components in production. ”
The matter went, and the engineer of medical technology, Anatoly Likhnitsky, with a mechanic, Strakhov, created a system with characteristics unattainable for Soviet production models.
The amplifier of this system will later be turned into a serial "Brig".
“The most successful part of the stereo system turned out to be a transistor amplifier with fantastic parameters at the time: power 50 W / channel, nonlinear distortion 0.1%, frequency band 5-50 000 Hz, but surprisingly, this amplifier sounded quite good.”
From the memories of Likhnitsky
It is the circuit design of this amplifier, created using a symmetric quasi-complementary output stage, and became the basis of the future "Brig". According to Likhnitsky, his brainchild "outplayed" and his own lamp developments on the 64 and one of the legendary tube amplifiers "Dynaco".
The party said it is necessary, the Komsomol answered there
In the early 1970s, all amplifiers available to Soviet citizens, such as “Electronics B1-01”, (as well as their fellows, built into the bodies of record players and reel-to-reel recorders), were not only inferior to Western analogs, but were worse in literally all objective and subjective parameters. Not surprisingly, the idea of the emergence of high-quality audio equipment by 1975 was also realized by the ruling minority.
Electronics B1-01 - Amplifier subjected to special criticism from Likhnitsky
The leaders of the branch departments of the USSR understood that the low level of quality of consumer goods is fraught with obtaining a sensitive kick from the politburo for lagging behind the west - this was fully applied to audio equipment. In addition to objective necessity, there was a provoking initiative from below. Mostly enthusiastic engineers were in favor of the Soviet HI-FI, who more than others understood that the capabilities of the technological and production base allowed it to be produced.
The key decision on the creation of Brig was made by the head of the 10th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry N. Sviridov. It was this man, a former employee of the Leningrad radio, who was known for reporting from a
The matter was complicated by the fact that in 1971 the Leningrad Regional Party Committee decided: “Ocean Pribor’s engineering instrument-making complex, in its spare time from the defense industry, will create dishes for Soviet housewives.” Fortunately, later in 1973, under pressure from Sviridov, the regional committee changed the decision to: "catch up and overtake the west, letting out a series of cool Soviet UMZCH".
The party said that the amplifier needs to be done by 1975. The development was entrusted to the consumer goods department (read between the letters “HI-FI equipment”), which was structurally part of the Ocean Pribor subdivision with the maritime name of the Scientific Research Institute Morphyspribor. The head of the department was Candidate of Science Alla Kalyaeva. According to rumors, it was this influential woman, known in the circle of Petersburg philophonists, who “broke through” at the head (Sviridov) the creation of the HI-FI direction.
Sviridov and Kalyaeva, who knew Lihnitsky from music
“Listening to avant-garde jazz and Bach's“ Passions ”, as well as interesting meetings and a large amount of alcohol were the main content of our parties of those times. Alla was the soul and organizer of such parties. "
Lihnitsky
Likhnitsky, who worked in the field of uninteresting medical equipment for him, happily agreed. As soon as the discussion broke out that you can quickly design and launch into a series, Anatoly Lyhnitsky said that the best option is his amplifier mod. 1970s. The proposal was accepted, after 3 months the first prototype saw the light, and after 2 years of torment, the Brig appeared.
Through the thorns to the sound
During the development process, a group of engineers, and first of all, Likhnitsky and Kalyaeva, faced a number of serious technical, production and, as often happened in the Soviet Union, organizational problems.
At the design stage, the main problem was transistors. In the Likhnitsky amplifier, they were germanium, the use of which was not intended in the new product. The transition to silicon assumed a change in the output stage scheme. The problem was solved by processing the initial quasi-complementary variant.
It served as the basis for the creation of a voltage amplifier , which was included in the serial “Brig” circuit. Processing made it possible to use low-voltage silicon transistors CT 808A in the terminal. As Likhnitsky later noted, the output cascade solution was close to the Peter Walker scheme used in the Quad 303.
One of the interesting engineering solutions, which was borrowed for other Soviet HI-FI amplifiers, became discrete tone switches for 24 positions. The design was simply copied from German samples, which the author of "Brig" found at home. By the way, Anatoly Lihnitsky was a great connoisseur of German audio of the 30s - 40s.
At the initial stage of development, organizational difficulties could not be avoided. According to Likhnitsky, he was the informal leader of the group that developed the Brig. However, his position in the department’s structure seemed precarious to him.
The department consisted of 3 sectors:
• Development Sector;
• Design sector;
• A group of designers.
Kalyaeva - head of the topic, Lihnitsky - head of the main areas of research.
Anatoly Likhnitsky
Later, by chance, Anatoly will take the place of the head of the development sector (which is an impressive career growth for a non-party Likhnitsky), whose duties he partially performed before. Having obtained a legitimate authority in the sector, the engineer structures the unit entrusted to him and creates several groups. A special place was occupied by the “resource group”. The best thing about this in his memoirs was written by Likhnitsky himself:
"This sign has always attracted the attention of officials inspecting us, and I had to frankly explain that the head of this group, armed with brandy and chocolate candies, can get any components and materials that are in short supply ... within a week, and not a year later, as is done officially ... "
At the stage of production of the first serial "Brig" also was not without problems. The mass production of the amplifier was to take place at the Vodtranspribor factory. Collectors, tuners and other qualified proletariat of the plant did not really want to change the prestigious bread machinery for the unpromising in terms of salary "Brig". The first serially produced amplifiers began to burn when tuning. Likhnitsky and Kalyaev were tried to be accused of creating a “sample not suitable for serial production”, but, as Lyhnitsky put it, “Clouds thickened” over the heads of the developers. Later the cleverly planned sabotage was uncovered and the amplifiers ceased to burn.
Triumph of "Brig"
The presentation of the first brigs took place before the official release and even before the appearance of serial amplifiers. In 1974, prototypes were ready. After proper testing, Sviridov, Kalyaeva and Likhnitsky decided to demonstrate the hope of Soviet music lovers, Butome, Minister of the shipbuilding industry.
Butoma Boris Evstakhievich - Minister who gave the nod to the "Brig"
Impressed by the newborn Soviet Haifa, the Minister invited Leonid Gorshkov, the chief party audiophile, deputy chairman of the Military Industrial Commission under the CPSU Central Committee, to the presentation.
hero soc. Labor and Audiophile - Gorshkov Leonid Ivanovich
Gorshkov's reaction was enthusiastic. The only question the official asked was which transistors are used in the amplifier. The result of the presentation was the possibility of using tantalum capacitors and other deficient elements, which were previously used only in the defense industry, as well as an impressive cash prize for developers, for serial samples of the Brig. It is also known that after the "show" in Botuma's office, Gorshkov arranged the spraying under the control of VNIIRPA (whose leaders unsuccessfully tried to get Hyfaye to do), where as a result of the disassembly that followed the separation, the head of the amplifiers laboratory died.
"Brig 001" - an early version
After the long-suffering serial "Brig" went on sale, an unprecedented stir began. It was possible to get the amplifier only thanks to a surprisingly good pull and with a surcharge of at least 25 Soviet rubles (a quarter of an engineer’s monthly salary).
At the Leipzig trade fair amplifier received a gold medal. By 1977, the Brig was actively exported to the UK, France and Australia. The specialists of the British company Afif Ltd., which exported Brig, acknowledged that the amplifier fully complied with the HI-FI standard and all the requirements of the western market.
The serial "Brig" possessed characteristics that in many ways surpassed the more expensive and, most importantly, the "non-obtainable" Western components in the USSR:
• output rated power: 2 × 50 W (with a load of 4 ohms);
• nominal reproducible frequency range with non-uniformity of frequency response ± 0.7 dB: 20 ... 25 000 Hz;
• harmonic coefficient in the frequency range of 40 ... 16 000 Hz: 0.1%;
• intermodulation distortion ratio: 0.15%;
• crosstalk attenuation between channels in the range of 250-10000 Hz: 40 dB;
• signal / noise ratio relative to nominal output power for line input: 86 dB;
• power consumption: 150 W;
• overall dimensions: 452 × 372 × 118 mm;
• weight: 15 kg;
• retail price in the USSR: 625 rubles;
• retail price in the UK: £ 300 pounds in 1976 (now £ 1500).
Total
“Brig” was, if not the first, then one of the first HI-FI devices in the USSR, in many ways setting the bar high and predetermining the development of other amplifiers of high fidelity playback. The experience of its developers was useful to many who created the HI-FI equipment in the following years. Circuit design and engineering solutions created for the "Brig", predetermined the development of such amplifiers as: "Amfiton 002", "Odyssey 010" and "Pulsar".
Anatoly Likhnitsky
Despite my ironic attitude to some views of Likhnitsky and his frank pseudoscientific delusionalization in the network (although there is also an opinion that it was a subtle banter), I believe that he was one of those who formed the ideology of high fidelity of reproduction in the Country of Soviets and made no small contribution to the creation of equipment in the framework of this ideology. Moreover, it was he, Kalyaeva and all those who took off working on Brig, proved the possibility of creating mass high-quality audio equipment in the USSR. "Brig" has become one of the best devices of its time in terms of price / quality ratio (characteristics), its capabilities are still superior to many modern samples. The release of the amplifier lasted until 1989. Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky died in 2013, the year.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/404967/
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