Comment by joecarpenter

Ah, the memories! Around the fall of the Soviet Union, there was an IBM-compatible clone called Poisk. It was not 100% compatible with with IBM PC, had 128 KB built-in RAM (extensible to 640 KB with a card), had CGA graphics with a composite output only, no floppy interface without an addon, etc. But it was cheap, like really cheap and only needed a TV and a tape recorder to get going. I'd say Poisk was #2 home PC after gazillion of inexpensive ZX Spectrum clones.

Article mentions that tape interface was rarely used - that was definitely not the case in the (ex)USSR.

Anyway, having spent so much time with Poisk with cassette interface after ZX Spectrum, I can still distinguish PC vs ZX tapes by just listening to them - they have slightly different tonality.