XP Series Speakers 1959-1973

Here are some pics. It was dark in my workshop but I think they are passable. I rubbed the cabinets down with Howards Restor a Finish in mahogany color. It brought back their finish pretty well. It made only a very slight change in the color.

In my opinion these cabinets definitely have a red mahogany like color that is not similar to any walnut colored cabinets that I have. The pics are not nearly as red as the cabinets appear in person. As far as the wood type I'm on the fence. I can identify many types of wood but I'm stumped here. I can find samples of both walnut and mahogany that look similar to what I've got here. Anybody got a feeling one way or another?

What A great thread. I have a pair of XP-10,s untouched inside and out. I wiped down a corner and took this picture. With the flash wood looks to be Walnut with a red look to it. hope this helps
 

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Hiya,

I am bumping this hoping it becomes a sticky. Its the most comprehensive , in depth , accurate treatise on the Fisher Speaker line up in the world.

It deserves a place of honor.

Frannie
 
Hiya,

I am bumping this hoping it becomes a sticky. Its the most comprehensive , in depth , accurate treatise on the Fisher Speaker line up in the world.

It deserves a place of honor.

Frannie

I'd like to see it extended into the "modern era". There are a boatload of "STV" Fisher speakers out there. I can't imagine they are as bad as people react, else how did they sell so many?
 
A lot of, if not most of, the 80's and early 90's FISHER stuff that I've seen in stores were in packaged stacks. The amps and integrated's were 1/2 way decent if they had TO-3 output's or some of the better STK's. But for the most part you got a box, with a tuner, integrated amp chassis, cassette chassis, and later a cd chassis all in the one box with a couple of BIG speaker boxes. STV Speaker boxes were usually made of 1/2" or thinner chipboard, had no padding, and in most cases would only sound passable at low volume with the package they were sold with. Big cones, very small magnets.
 
A lot of, if not most of, the 80's and early 90's FISHER stuff that I've seen in stores were in packaged stacks. The amps and integrated's were 1/2 way decent if they had TO-3 output's or some of the better STK's. But for the most part you got a box, with a tuner, integrated amp chassis, cassette chassis, and later a cd chassis all in the one box with a couple of BIG speaker boxes. STV Speaker boxes were usually made of 1/2" or thinner chipboard, had no padding, and in most cases would only sound passable at low volume with the package they were sold with. Big cones, very small magnets.

The freebie "stack" I picked up has an amp with tuner, a dual cassette deck, a turntable, and 5-disc changer - some of which have special plugs intended just to be connected to the included mothership amp.

And the speakers - yep, chipboard and hollow, big woofer, small magnet, sealed back mids and tweets.
Front and rear box panels are 3/4" thick, side panels thinner. Tiny amounts of bracing and no acoustic dampening.
So far I braced one and added foam panels to 3 interior faces plus acoustic "fluff". No more hollow sound when you knock on them, but little perceptible improvement in sound. My bet is the 2 caps need replaced.

One nice thing is the woofer surrounds appear to be made of some kind of silk cloth as opposed to foam or rubber; so no rot. Since the speakers are ported, this surround material is porous - if you hold it up to the light you can kinda see thru it

I'm gonna finish working over the second speaker and probably sell them for materials costs as graduation-party grove speakers.
 
"What A great thread. I have a pair of XP-10,s untouched inside and out. I wiped down a corner and took this picture. With the flash wood looks to be Walnut with a red look to it. hope this helps "

Yeah, I'm on the same page now, walnut with a stain that has a lot of red pigments. Very much like mahogany, very attractive. Yes this whole thread is fantastic!!
 
Does the XP-10 woofer have a cloth surround like the midrange?

I don't think these are sealed (acoustic suspension type) but they aren't ported either. What type of speakers are they?

Do the cloth surrounds need to be re-doped? I'm not exactly blown away by my XP-10's. They sound at little mid-rangy. Could be that I have a 3" cone tweeter from another pair of XP's in there cause my dome tweeters were dried up and the domes came off. Spider was also cracked.
 
XP-9 is acoustic suspension with a cloth surround. Don't know about the XP-10 but it sounds like it's similar. Mine need redoping as they are leaky and I bought the stuff on eBay to do the job. Now, it just has to move up in the "to do" list which is longer than my statistical remaining life expectancy.
 
fore sure they need a doping or you will have little to no bass response and also put your drivers at risk for either over excursion or a bottoming of the VC with that pressure unregulated
 
Fisher Speaker Systems Technical Fact Booklet from 1965 says the XP-10 is "AcoustiGlas-packed, non-resonant, sealed enclosure"
 
Thanks for the info guys! Now I don't feel so foolish for putting sealant in the corners of the cabinet, or
coating the inside with urethane.

And now I have another "to do" as well. :D
 
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XP-9 is acoustic suspension with a cloth surround. Don't know about the XP-10 but it sounds like it's similar. Mine need redoping as they are leaky and I bought the stuff on eBay to do the job. Now, it just has to move up in the "to do" list which is longer than my statistical remaining life expectancy.


So what is the dope anyhow does anyone know
 
"What A great thread. I have a pair of XP-10,s untouched inside and out. I wiped down a corner and took this picture. With the flash wood looks to be Walnut with a red look to it. hope this helps "

Yeah, I'm on the same page now, walnut with a stain that has a lot of red pigments. Very much like mahogany, very attractive. Yes this whole thread is fantastic!!

The larger XP models are on my bucket listen list. I imagine the XP-18 and some of the others between 10-18 having the kind of magic that my W90's are known for, and both use cone-tweeters and huge enclosures and are known for their musicality, so I'm betting that's it's true.
 
Gang u would probably love your hands on my xp16s. I am not able to get to themright now ill have to post pics next I am home
 
So what is the dope anyhow does anyone know

Looks like a thick black oil but I have not opened the bottle yet. They warn you to have plenty of paper covering the work area and throw out the brush when done, don't even try to clean it. The original stuff is still slightly tacky after 48 years.
 
It's a Butyl Rubber compound, with solvents. Works great, but the brushes become 1 time affairs.
 
Fisher Speaker Systems Technical Fact Booklet from 1965 says the XP-10 is "AcoustiGlas-packed, non-resonant, sealed enclosure"

I guess that makes it an acoustic suspension right? Not 100% sure if there are other criteria.

I emailed Vintage AR to ask if he was aware of anyone using the dope on Fisher cloth surrounds. He didn't know for sure. His ebay page lists AR and KLH.

I have also decided to replace the cone tweeters I used (original domes were DOA) with some soft dome tweeters. The Dayton DC28F soft dome. Seems like a perfect candidate. Lots of great reviews. Even though these speakers were around $2000 adjusted for inflation, I don't know if I want to invest the price of Morel's into it. Bet the Daytons will be fine.

I'll have to remake the midrange/tweeter baffle though. No big deal.
 
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Xp-10

Sorry guys!! I haven't checked this post in awhile. Yes the XP-10 is acoustic suspension. Yes it has a cloth surround. Mine have some daylight showing but I have not yet redoped them. Mine have good bass response. I've seen many cloth surrounds from similar vintage speakers, Advent, KLH, Goodmans etc that seem to be similar. Good cloth condition but maybe a bit porous. I'm under the impression they once held air but I have never seen anything definitive that says they were airtight. It's not a requirement that a cabinet be completely airtight and I've heard that some manufacturers allowed some leakage but 50 years later who knows. The amount of leakage that's acceptable has a lot to do with how stiff the original cone was. I may buy some dope and see what happens.
 
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111k Fisher Speakers

Learned a lot reading this fantastic thread. As luck would have it, I found a nice pair of 111k's on CL. I have completely restored these speakers by replacing all the cross-over capacitors with Solens, resealed the woofers, put new goop on all the driver surrounds (I got the stuff from the guy on ebay who supposedly has the best coating), and refinished the cabinets with Howard's Walnut Restor a Finish and finally gave them a coat of Feed and Wax. They look outstanding.

Next question: When I first hooked these up to my Scott R36AS receiver and played some vinyl, they sounded like crap. But after listening for a total of 3-4 hours over the last couple of days, these speakers seem to be getting progressively better. In fact, I would say they sound pretty damn good. I assume I'm listening to the Solens "breaking in"? If so, how long does this break in period last? Any comments from the experts out there are appreciated.
 
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