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, about which this person wrote a lot at the end of his life, which does not 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 like I am exaggerating, however, I dare to assure that this is not at all the case.



    In the 70s, the so-called “Brezhnevsky stagnation” period, the USSR was a country with a stunning 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, practically 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 tolerable.

    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’s luxury for damned capitalists in the decaying west;
    • In the USSR, they do not know how to do anything, and all the valuable personnel who would be able to do this work for the defense industry, or emigrated to Israel abroad;
    • 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 then existing misconceptions and lack of motivation among the relevant branches of Soviet power, the creation of high fidelity equipment became the lot of enthusiasts. One of these people was Anatoly Likhnitsky, who in 1970 was visited by 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 equipment, Anatoly Likhnitsky, with the mechanic Strakhov, created a system with characteristics inaccessible to Soviet production models.
    The amplifier of this system will later be turned into a serial "Brig".
    "The most part of the succeeding stereo turned the amplifier on transistors with fantastic at the time the following parameters: 50 watts / channel, harmonic distortion of 0.1%, the frequency band of 5-50 Hz 000, but what is surprising - this amp sounded pretty good."
    From the memories Lihnitskogo

    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 6С4С 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 than 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 sectoral departments of the USSR understood that the low level of quality of consumer goods is fraught with 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 famous for reporting from the burning during the siege of Leningradtank, supervised the association "Oceanpribor". 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 wonders in the country of advice, the official created a direction for the development and production of high-quality equipment.

    The matter was complicated by the fact that in 1971 the Leningrad Regional Party Committee decided: “the engineering instrument-making complex Oceanpribor, 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 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 Kalyaev, who knew Lihnitsky from music lovers to closed meetings for a narrow circle with listening to equipment, invited a talented engineer to participate in the project.

    “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. ”
    Likhnitsky

    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, industrial 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 suggested a change in the output stage scheme. The problem was solved by processing the initial quasi-complementary variant.



    It served as the basis for creating an amplifier.voltage, which was included in the scheme of the serial "Brig". Recycling made it possible to use in the terminal of low-voltage silicon transistors CT 808A. 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, it was he who 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 development 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 accessories 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" is also not without problems. The mass production of the amplifier was to take place at the Vodtranspribor factory. Assemblers, tuners and other qualified proletariat of the plant did not really want to change the prestigious bread machinery for the unpromising “brig” in terms of salary. 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 even 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 with the newborn Soviet high-tech, the Minister invited Leonid Gorshkov to the presentation of the main party audiophile, deputy chairman of the Military Industrial Commission under the CPSU Central Committee.


    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 bonus 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 clashes following 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. Specialists of the British company Afif Ltd., which exported Brig, recognized that the amplifier fully complied with the HI-FI standard and all the requirements of the western market.



    The serial “Brig” possessed characteristics that were in many ways superior to the more expensive and, most importantly, “unreachable” 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 40 ... 16 000 Hz: 0.1%;
    • coefficient of intermodulation distortion: 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, largely setting a high bar and predetermining the development of other high fidelity amplifiers. 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 thin banter), I believe that he was one of those who formed the ideology of high fidelity to play in the Country The 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.

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