The Zvezda-54

The 1950s were the golden age of the Soviet valve radio. This beauty must have weighed a hundred and fifty pounds - hardly an item to lug down to the Black Sea beach house for a romantik weekend. Schematics here, should you want to jetison the iPod and build a Zveda-54 from scratch. Large knobs (for those meaty, canned-ham Politburo hands) offer such a striking contrast to our miniscule buttons of today. Alas, where has Soviet era chunky-clunky elegance gone?