The history of car audio systems
began in 1904. For decades, the Soviet Union did not participate in it. However, later in the USSR many interesting receivers and players were made. Today we decided to talk about it.
Andshel / CC PhotoThe era of radio receivers
It is believed that the world history of car audio systems began in 1904, when American inventor Lee De Forest, nicknamed the “Father of Radio”, demonstrated the first car radio at the World's Fair. However, such devices hit the massive car market only in the 1930s. This happened also in the USA, where in those years the automotive industry was actively developing.
In the USSR, at that time, only the first large-scale production of passenger cars was being created. Soviet models of the “first wave”, for example,
NAMI-1 , were assembled by hand, because the process of their production was long and expensive. At the same time they were distributed among the garages of enterprises, and professional chauffeurs drove them. As can be judged by the information that has come down to our time, the receivers were not installed in them.
Automobile radio receivers in the USSR appeared around the time when
the active development of broadcasting began. The very first Soviet car radio was the
AI-656 , released in 1936 for the
ZIS-101 limousine. In the name of the receiver its characteristics were encrypted - “6-circuit, 5-lamp” - and the year of manufacture (1936).
However, as can be judged by clippings from newspapers, which
are presented by users of the forum of radio amateurs, the A-5 model became the first serial car radio in the USSR. It was developed on the basis of "A-695", which
was produced in 1945 for the car of a representative class "
ZIS-110 " and the subsequent "
ZIM ".
Mass equipment for cars receivers
began with the release of "Muscovites"
for foreign markets . One of the export models was the "
Moskvich-402 ", released in 1956. He received several updates in the part of additional equipment in comparison with his predecessors - “400th” and “401th”. Among other things, the "402nd" was equipped with a regular radio - "
A-8M ".
Evgeny Kochnev, author of the book "Famous cars. 1946-1970 "
indicates that at the time of the release of the improved version of the" 402nd "- the car" Moskvich-407 "- about a third of the" Muscovites "were sent abroad. There, they were especially appreciated for their two-tone coloration and rare radios for this class.
Photo bogdan / CCIn the following years, other Soviet cars began to
be equipped with receivers. Among them were the "Volga" and "Zaporozhtsy". At the same time, an “elite segment” of automotive systems began to take shape - they were equipped by high-ranking officials. For example, in the late Soviet period in the "Seagull" and "ZIL-115" put "AV-75". The receiver
had several modifications: "AV-75-3C", "AV-75-3E", "AV-75-ChS" and "AV-75-CHE" - the letters at the end of the name indicated the car brand and VHF range (for the USSR or Europe).
The machines of some party leaders, including the limousine of Leonid Brezhnev,
were equipped with an AV-75-3C receiver from the Riga Radiotehnika factory. Its feature was the presence of a control panel and an input for connecting a cassette tape recorder.
Photo Pxhere / CCSome models of Soviet receivers are still valued - on the Internet auctions
you can find rare devices "
Ural Auto ". This receiver was released in the 70s. Its main feature was versatility - it could be used as a portable device. For example,
this is how Ural Auto-2
works .
In general, the range of radio receivers in the period from 1950 to 1970 slightly
exceeded 20 models.
New formats
In the second half of the 20th century, radio was popular all over the world. At the same time, new formats appeared. This trend has not spared the automotive industry. In the late 1950s,
serial record players (for example, Highway Hi-Fi in Chrysler) for cars were released in the United States. The device did not have time to become widely demanded due to a number of restrictions (in particular, it had a modest collection of available records) and gave way to cassette players.
In the 60s in the USSR they made their attempt to make a car vinyl player - “Daisi”. Not much evidence was preserved about him, but it is known that he was produced in Tbilisi. As in the case of Highway Hi-Fi, for “Daisi” they released format plates slower than usual - 16⅔ turns. There are
opinions that the manufacturer managed to solve the problems of the American counterpart. While the media library for Highway Hi-Fi was limited, a "wide range of records" was allegedly produced for Daisi. Such a player could be installed in the "Volga".
But more is known about the tape recorders of that time. In 1972, three systems were
developed at the plant in St. Petersburg - Avtokassetta-Stereo, Avtokassetta-201 and Avtokassetta-202-stereo - for Zhiguli, Volg, Moskvich and Zaporozhtsev. However, these recorders for some reason did not go into production. But two years later, on the basis of them, in the Moscow region, they
launched the production of AM-301 systems, and in Grodno - Grodno-301 systems. The players were similar to each other on the device and were designed for installation in cars VAZ-2103 and IL-2125. AM and Grodno reproduced
MK-60 cassettes with a 3.81 mm wide tape.
Later, stereosystems
began to be produced in Kharkov, Arzamas, Tambov, Murom and other cities. The devices were produced during the 80s, and some models continued to be assembled in the 90s.
Photo by Jury Svetashev / CCThen began the production and car stereo systems. For example, since 1987, the
Vega 8-2 was produced in the Novosibirsk region, which was positioned as equipment with high-quality sound. Thus, for half a century, audio systems in Soviet cars have gone from the first receivers to the prototype of automobile Hi-Fi.
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