Visualization of industrial design objects II

Imagine the 1960s in the USSR, when domestic audio technology was just beginning to enter houses. It was at that time that, starting in 1964, the Velvet Luka Radio Plant began producing a coiled tape recorder called «Chaika-M». For many Soviet families, it was one of the first available instruments for recording and replicating sound — relatively simple, inexpensive, and therefore popular. His body of rotten plasma, covered with plastic, and a solid weight of 12 kg became a symbol of reliability. It was used to record the voices of the family, music from the radio, or whole home plays, and the process of changing the coils with 250 metres of magnetic tape and turning them to use the second track was a ritual.

The tea-M was an improved version of the 1960 version of the tea model. The main pride of modernization was the new universal magnetic head, which significantly expanded the repeatable frequency range to 40 to 10,000 Hz, making the sound cleaner and more detailed. The machine was operated using a light pattern on four lamps, and the recording level helped control the electro-optic indicator — the green «magic tube» that lived its life under music. Although its technical characteristics may seem modest today, for its time, «Chaika-M» was a real window into the sound world. It did not simply reproduce music, but created the very warm «campae» atmosphere, which today is highly valued by audiophiles and retro-tech collectors.