A little help IDing this receiver?

sjfloat

Super Member
Hi,

I just picked up this "SEARS AUDIO BY" Fisher receiver at a thrift for $10. The model number is 143.92541600, which I understand to be *Sears'* number. Does anybody recognize this visually? I'd like to know what non-branded Fisher model this corresponds to, if any.

BTW, the quick FM test reveals some decent sound. It obviously needs some TLC, which I'm prepared to provide, but I think it might turn out pretty swell.

The panel layout is almost identical to a 332 except this one has a power button on the far right and a additional FM tuning meter.

Thanks!
 

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Sears by FISHER was actually made by SANYO/FISHER. There was little commonality between the general FISHER units and the Sears by Fisher. But nailing it down to a specific model is pretty much impossible as FISHER didn't make brochures for the Sears units and Sears gave you a owners manual only. No service manuals were available. So corellate it as close as you can feature and power wise and go from there.

Sorry we can't provide more info on the SANYO FISHER stuff.
 
Looks very much like a 332 to me but you'd have to take a look inside and compare it to online photos to confirm if it's got the same layout. Hifiengine might have manuals on both so maybe you can compare the schematics, that would tell you for sure.

FWIW I just overhauled a couple of 432 Fishers and there was nothing Sanyo about them at all. The semiconductors are all by Motorola and the boards had an unusual logo stamped on them. These seem to predate the Sanyo era by just a little bit, definitely not one of the Hitachi units but not one of the later Sanyo's either...they seem to fall in between somewhere.

Outputs in the 432 are discrete Motorola Darlington TO-3 transistors and the whole layout kind of reminds me more of the Phillips "High Fidelity Laboratories" series era of Magnavox than anything else. Great receivers but I hate Motorola's proprietary numbering system for their transistors, makes it very difficult to source replacements (unless you've got a curve tracer handy).
 
Looks very much like a 332 to me but you'd have to take a look inside and compare it to online photos to confirm if it's got the same layout. Hifiengine might have manuals on both so maybe you can compare the schematics, that would tell you for sure.

FWIW I just overhauled a couple of 432 Fishers and there was nothing Sanyo about them at all. The semiconductors are all by Motorola and the boards had an unusual logo stamped on them. These seem to predate the Sanyo era by just a little bit, definitely not one of the Hitachi units but not one of the later Sanyo's either...they seem to fall in between somewhere.

Outputs in the 432 are discrete Motorola Darlington TO-3 transistors and the whole layout kind of reminds me more of the Phillips "High Fidelity Laboratories" series era of Magnavox than anything else. Great receivers but I hate Motorola's proprietary numbering system for their transistors, makes it very difficult to source replacements (unless you've got a curve tracer handy).

Yes, on the basis of the visual similarity, I grabbed the 332 service manual from hifi engine. But the 432 looks like a *much* closer match -- virtually identical except for the placement of the power button. It would seem insane for them not to have at least used the same board. When I go in there to clean up, I'll see how close it is to the schematic. I see the 432 has discrete power outputs vs the 332's amp chips. Fortunately, it seems to be, at least, nominally functional. I'll probably record some voltages while I'm in there whether they align with the schematic or not, for future reference.

Thanks for the advice.
 
That unit is very very close to the Fisher 432. Check the output transistor used. If they are TO3 transistors (TR01064-9, and TRO2064-9) which are darlingtons fisher used, then this is a 432 clone
 
Ya, I’d have to agree probably closer to a 432 than a 332 considering the centering and signal strength meters. The 332 just has the one tuning meter. Schematics and looking under the hood will tell all.
 
Ya, I’d have to agree probably closer to a 432 than a 332 considering the centering and signal strength meters. The 332 just has the one tuning meter. Schematics and looking under the hood will tell all.

Besides those differentiators, this unit has two phono inputs, like the 432 (the 332 has only one). The power button is kind of an arbitrary difference. Is it integrated with the volume pot on the 332 and 432?
 
Don't know if it's close to 143.92551600 (one digit difference), but that's covered in the Sams hi-fi book MHF-119 which I have.
 
Besides those differentiators, this unit has two phono inputs, like the 432 (the 332 has only one). The power button is kind of an arbitrary difference. Is it integrated with the volume pot on the 332 and 432?

Nope, it’s integrated with the speaker selector switch on the 432 (don’t know about the 332 but probably the same). They use a slow power-up time delay within the amp circuit for anti-thump protection when powering up.

The 432 does have a speaker protection relay but it’s a normally closed relay that is de-energized unless a fault is detected. When a fault is detected the protect relay engages and cuts out the B+ and B- rails to the power amp as well as disconnecting the speakers from the power amp (pretty good idea to immediately kill the power to the amp circuit instead of just disconnecting the speakers). It can trip on voltage or low impedance detection at the output as well as thermal overload of the heat sinks (there’s a simple “klix-on” thermal switch mounted to the heat sink for overtemp protection). You have to shut the power off and wait for the filter caps to discharge for the relay to drop out to its normal position again.
 
Don't know if it's close to 143.92551600 (one digit difference), but that's covered in the Sams hi-fi book MHF-119 which I have.

Well, if the 432 service manual doesn't suffice, I may have to look into that. Looks like that book covers several pieces of gear.

Looks like they have a direct hit, actually. But it's not a book, it's a photocopy for $25.
 
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Check over at stereomanuals.com He has a Factory Repro of the 432's actual Service Manual. His repro's are in most cases better than the original. For Keepers or really good gear I get all my manuals from Rick.
 
Check over at stereomanuals.com He has a Factory Repro of the 432's actual Service Manual. His repro's are in most cases better than the original. For Keepers or really good gear I get all my manuals from Rick.

His prices look pretty good. I'm not sure I'll wind up needing one for this Fisher, but I've not been able to find a service manual for my Pilot 254; he has a couple options.
 
Well, so far the 432 schematic has been close enough to be helpful. There are T03 outputs -- I guess it's likely that they're the darlingtons shown in the schematic. I tidied up a little and deoxied the controls, particular the source selector which was giving me troubles. It sounds and operates pretty good.

IMG_20180513_103011.jpg

But it's a little dark. Any suggestions about lamp replacements? Would white LEDs look reasonably legitimate?

IMG_20180512_144602.jpg
IMG_20180512_144547.jpg
 
But it's a little dark. Any suggestions about lamp replacements? Would white LEDs look reasonably legitimate?

So it appears there are 9 fixed, soldered-in, radial lamps and a dial pointer lamp that run in parallel that are always on (hmm, even the dial pointer?). And there four coming off of the input selector that are running at 24 vdc, if I can trust the schematic (easy thing to check though).

The 9 are all on their own pcb. I guess I could rework the board so the rails would accommodate white LEDs. Or maybe I just put a strip of LEDs on the other side of the board, since they seem to just generally light the area.

I haven't determined what style the 24v lamps are.
 
make sure they are 24v lamps and not just 12v-14v lamps in 2 lamp series/parallel pairs, like the Yamaha's do.

I would suggest that you ohms check each bulb, with 1 leg lifted, of course the ohms check with power off
 
make sure they are 24v lamps and not just 12v-14v lamps in 2 lamp series/parallel pairs, like the Yamaha's do.

I would suggest that you ohms check each bulb, with 1 leg lifted, of course the ohms check with power off

Well, the schematic has them all in parallel with 24vdc on one end and *I think* ground at the other side of the switch. But yeah, I'll measure the voltage before I do anything. Why would you have me check the resistance?

I thought I might have some white LEDs lying around, but I couldn't find any. So I ordered a few bright white flat tops.
 
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