Fisher 170 Receiver?

dickard

Active Member
I'm wondering if anyone has any info on the Fisher 170.

I was in a local used furniture store today and they had some electronics including the Fisher. I'm wondering if it would be worth going back to pick it up. I'm not sure of the price, as it was not marked. If their furniture prices are any indication of their electronic prices, then I probably can't afford it.

They also had a bunch of turntables of varying quality, a Sony 5000F tuner (which I know I should get) and a Harmon/Kardon 330B. I wonder if they'd give me a deal if I were to purchase all three pieces. :scratch2:

Rich
 
Check the back of the Fisher for the maker's tag. If it says "made in Japan", I'd pass on it. If it says "made in USA", it is probably worth $10 ~ $50 depending on how it sounds. Recognize this is all my opinion and worth what you paid for it :D
 
Strangely enough, I picked up one of these today for 5 bucks. What the hell. Still in the trunk with the other 3 that I picked up for no good reason (Sansui 800, Akai AA-1150, Marantz/Superscope R-1270?). Sure it was only $40 for all 4, but now, what the hell to do with 'em? :)

*tsk* too much time on my hands at work!
 
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I just brought one of these babies home from grandmas house.
the Fisher 170 that is. I have not fiddled with the tuner much, it works but have not tested out it's AM capabilities, but as for sound Im very impressed. Mine was made in Japan, so if what the other guy^ said is right then oh well, it was free. But I thought shit made in Japan was good.
All of my Yammi gear is Jap and so is my last car and my new to me 900RR

Mine has tone. So if your in to "neutral" sound then this is not the one. It sounds damn close to tube tone, but I figure it's because of all of the harmonics generated by the very strait forward amplifier circuit. They use 2SC1066 finals. They are TO-220 general Purpose Tranies. In other words you can find them in the PA circuit of you Wal-Mart purchased CB.

On top of all of that, mine is mint. Really mint. Well until I burned a little spot on the top last night with my soldering iron.

Oh well..... As long as it's not a commie Im happy. :music:
 
Well thanks for the info there Fisherdude :thmbsp:

I'll be sure to modify it tonight, or at least start anyways. I know those transistors can consume almost twice the power they are getting. The heat sink will be an issue, it's just a vertical plank of aluminum. But I can always change it so it has more surface area.

I have a feeling this would be a good combo with my JBL 2500 book shelves.
 
I just got my grubby little paws on a 170. A little cleanup and some bulbs and it ought to look pretty good.
 
I got the Fisher 170 from Craigslist for twenty five bucks and I was impressed with the sound from the 70's. It's beats the sound of my modern digital Sony 60 watts with DSP. I notice that it was made in Japan (1972) and I could not tell the difference between the Fisher 500C and this model I used to have. Anyway, I think this is the period that Fisher was bought by Emerson and subcontract assembly of The Fisher brand in Japan.
Still I enjoyed the residue of good engineering in sound quality even with simple controls. This receiver goes to one of my favorites.
 
Hi,

Avery Fisher had a few components contract manufactured in Japan late in his era. The Fisher 201 and 202 were among these. Hitachi made them for Fisher to Fisher specfications. My first good receiver was a Fisher 201 secondhand in 1980. In 1971, Avery Fisher sold Fisher Radio Corporation to Emerson Electric. :tresbon:
 
Hi ,

I wonder how that works for subcontracting receiver at that time. Maybe some of Avery's engineer approves the design and sound before mass produce. Todays receiver is so digital that it is flexible that I have to fiddle the digital setting to get the sound right ---but there's something subtle that seems not present compared to the simplicity of analog amplifiers. I like to one switch "Loudness" contour button. Its like a magic switch that makes the sound better without the need for equalizers. All I need to do is turn the bass and treble control manually (rarely) and enjoy the music. Not mp3 junk but pure CD or LP sound. But not to discredit digital , It's also nice for surround sound. So I guess having classic analog and digital amps are great collection :)
 
Hi Fisher man. You'll find that there are a lot of us here who stumbled back upon vintage components after making the mistake of thinking newer equals better. I had a Pioneer '70s receiver in college (it was vintage by then, early 90s) then was relieved when I could afford a big plastic home theater receiver, and lived with three of those (acquired as surround formats changed) until finding a nice turntable and realizing that my records just didn't sound as good as they did on that Pioneer. Now I have about 15 1970's receivers, and am moving even farther back into vintage tube equipment. It says a lot that the best sounding stereo I've ever had is based on a piece of equipment from the '60s (Dynaco stereo 70). Perhaps the technology of reproducing sound was mature, almost perfected really, and companies just had to keep changing things to give people an excuse to buy again...
 
Fisher 170T

I''ve ordered the servince manual for this receiver and I'm replacing some of the electrolytic caps which looks leaking . It only affects the receiver when I power it up creating a brief hum then goes back to normal. This one I can handle but one of the front panel knobs got broken:sigh: ...Now, does anybody have a good source of knobs. I've search ebay but could not get same parts.. maybe somebody has a better source of info. Please let me know.:scratch2:
 
Fisher 170T knob workaround

I finally was able to restore this:

-Held together the broken knob using lock tite glue
-Use garden wire (green) to held it tight
-Once dried up, use epoxy to fill up the missing gaps
-Went to hobby shop and buy one of those black touch up paint - painted it
-Dried it up
-Slide it in the shaft of the stereo

Not perfect but works for me. Need to smoothen the corners next time.
But hey restoring gives me a good feeling :D
 
:music:Just pic fisher 170 up at goodwill looks brand new what was the cost i back then pairing it up with 4312 JBL speaker and Harmon lardons t60 turntable sound good better than exspected I own vtl amps arie 1 turntable audio valve pre gradient 1.3 speakers wonderful system but yet I'm enjoying the system I put together for under 100 dollars and it sounds if you forgive the term hi end something to be said about vintage.....
 
New price was approx. @249.95

Chazz1; Please! A little punctuation goes a long way to getting your questions answered. A 78 word run on sentence is confusing, and most of us can't read without a random period (.), comma (,), exclamation point (!), semi colon ( ; ) or Colon ( : ) in between words, or sentences to end the sentence and or to make a point!

Thanks;
Larry
 
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So here's a funny story about a Fisher 170 receiver...

I bought one of these nice lil' 16 watt flea powered units from CL a few years ago to use around the workbench and as a backup unit for the garage in case the little Realistic STA-47 out there dies. The cap coupled amp section of the baby Fisher sounded very nice driving a small pair of decent speakers plus the tuner section was very sensitive and picked up everything. I liked the little cutie so much that I figured I'd pick up another if I stumbled across one.

Around the springtime of 2016 (and out of boredom mostly) I was looking around for information on the Fisher 170 when I found this thread on the Philco Phorum posted by a member in Indiana who was having a distortion issue with one. He recapped it, tested everything, changed the rectifier diodes and eventually bypassed the speaker control but the problem persisted. He realized that it wasn't really worth his effort to continue futzing with it so he did the smart thing and donated it to the "freebie" table at a radio swap meet instead of chucking it or parting it out.

Fast forward to summer 2017, I'm over at a friend and fellow AK'ers house here in central NJ and I spy a Fisher 170 sitting under a bunch of stuff next to his workbench. I asked him about it and he said "I found that on the freebie table as I was leaving a radio swap meet, I don't know if it works but please take it if you want it". I'm thinking to myself "from the freebie table at a radio swap meet, how much you wanna bet this is that same unit from the thread I was reading last year". I get it home and crack 'er open...sure enough it's the one from Indiana!

The previous owner did a beautiful job of installing the new caps, very neat and professional. Even the temporary bypass on the speaker selector was neat and clean, and that was just for troubleshooting purposes. Anyway, the distortion problem was bad output transistors (when they fail this way they won't show up as bad with a simple meter test, they only fail under a load) so I threw 4 TIP31C's in there, dialed everything in and she was all good.

So now fast forward to this past Thanksgiving up at my sisters place. My niece was admiring the little Pioneer SX-626 that I rebuilt and gave to the family a few years ago as it was playing in the background. She plugged her phone into it for a while and played some really nice music from her playlist while we were all prepping for dinner and doing all the usual holiday stuff. Later on she took me aside and said "you know I really like that stereo in there, it's so simple to use and it sounds very nice. Do you think there's any way you could set me up with a stereo like that, maybe even a little smaller?" Why yes, I believe I have just the thing...

So the lil' flea powered Fisher has gone from Indiana to PA to NJ and now on to VT where it should run for another 40 years with new caps, diodes, output transistors and all of the 2SC458's replaced. I did the power supply Q's too just for reliability, the new ones are a bit more robust so it's a happy camper now.

BTW if anyone knows Ron Ramirez from the Philco Phorum tell him thanks for doing such neat professional work and thanks for donating the little guy instead of tossing it out in frustration, it'll go on making music for many years to come!
:music:
 
Audio. Ron is a AK member and a frequent visitor here on the FISHER FORUM. His AK handle is mrphilco. And yes he does outstanding work!
 
I recently got one of these in great shape for $85. I had no idea going in, but I bought on sound and it's just fantastic. So now I'm looking to do a couple things:

1 - get a turntable that marries well to this unit for my old vinyl that has been sitting around.
2- enhance the sound from the PC thru this unit. Don't get me wrong, it sounds great, but I think it can do better. How? Everything I have is 320 or better.
3- make it last. There are no sound flaws or static produced from turning knobs or switching switches. How do I keep it that way?

I'd like to refinish the case or build a new one... I'm using Polk speakers on it now that sound just fantastic. I couldn't be more pleased with this modest investment. And this thread is what made me go on the deal. Glad I did. ;)

drjohnnyfeva
 
Audiojones,

When I saw this thread it reminded me of the 170 I had that became a time and money pit, and I was certainly surprised and pleased to learn that it ended up in a good home after all. I am very glad to know that you were able to get it going again. I really appreciate your kind words (you too Larry!) about my work. I've been tinkering with vintage radio since I was a young teenager (44 years now!). I caught the Fisher bug a few years ago and the 170 you now have is one of the units I had bought early on after I became interested in Fisher. I've since moved on to Fisher tube equipment although I still have some Fisher SS gear.

I think the only other thing I can say about your 170 is to quote Clint Eastwood (Magnum Force): A man's got to know his limitations. I had spent way too much time and $$ on the unit already, as mentioned above.

Thanks again!
Ron.
 
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