Brionvega Totem Stereo System (model RR 130)

Brionvega is certainly the Italian brand of electronic equipment that left the deepest mark in the history of world design. One of the most beautiful items of Brionvega is the TOTEM RR130.

It was designed by the architect and designer Mario Bellini in 1970.

The Brionvega Totem, along with others of Bellini's works, is exhibited at the MOMA in New York. Brionvega as an Italian top design audio manufacturer engaged world-known designers and produced objects that are exposed in the most famous international museums.

It is very unlikely – almost once in a lifetime - to find a top notch design object like this one on the vintage market.

When closed it looks like a smooth cube of 51 cm per side.

Once opened, the turntable, the console and the two adjustable and removable speakers are found.

The turntable is a beautiful German manufactured DUAL 1257. This is an excellent semi-automatic turntable equipped with a 16-pole motor, with belt transmission and a very heavy plate, for an excellent rotation stability. The central body includes a 22W stereo amplifier, an AM/FM tuner and a muzak receiver.

Each speaker is equipped with three cone speakers: a woofer, a midrange and a tweeter. The acoustic quality is interesting. Leaving the speakers in their rotating supports, the distance between them is sufficient to guarantee a beautiful stereo separation, even if the detachable speakers also can be placed at a bigger – but equal - distance away from the console.

The power is more than enough to fill medium-sized environments.

Rather than the frequency response, which is still quite linear, the most interesting feature is the kind of musicality the device can express. In fact, the sound is warm and mellow, close to the sound of tube amplifiers. This result derives from the type of circuit with a low negative feedback rate and the use of fair components, in complete contrast to the projects of Japanese derivation that were so fashionable in the 1970s.

A musicality with these features, a brilliant design, such a strong personality have determined its remarkable commercial success.

The Totem project follows the famous RR126 Radiofonografo (see also in our “Vintage Toys for Boys” collection). The two devices share different circuits, but several improvements and updates have been implemented in the Totem.

Info on designer Mario Bellini:

Eight times Compasso d'Oro, Italian designer Bellini counts among his most famous creations the Centro Espositivo e Congressuale di Villa Erba (Exhibition and Congress Center of Villa Erba) in Cernobbio, the Tokyo Design Center in Japan, the America Headquarters of Natuzzi in the United States, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, the Headquarters of the Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, the Department of Islamic Arts at the Louvre in Paris and the new Convention Center in Milan.

Brionvega since ever had world-known designers and produced objects that are exposed in the most famous international museums.

Among the firsts designers Zanuso and Sapper, 1964, that projected the portable TV Algol 11 and the radio TS 502, the “cube”.

In 1965 the Castiglioni brothers signed then the Stereophonic Radiofonografo RR126 and in 1970 the designer Mario Bellini traces the shape of the stereo system “Totem”.