Fisher Contemporary C800P

[Sam Cogley]

I had fun moving this beastie today...

I have everything except the R20 receiver chassis and the back plate for the speaker chamber. The 15" and 8" Jensen drivers were removed from the baffle and are in beautiful condition. The tweeter hasn't been removed but I'd assume it's in the same great shape. Does anyone know if it was solid or perforated?

The Garrard changer was in the trunk during this ordeal. And yes, I know my shrub is weird looking. I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with it - patches turn brown, patches turn green, seemingly without rhyme or reason.

Sheltie Dave gets a big :thmbsp: for picking up The Fisher and hanging onto it for a few days until I had a chance to visit St. Louis again. Dave can relate the whole sad story of this console.

 

[audiodon]

That bush looks like a teenager's hair.

 

[Fisherdude]

Yowza. Hope you had lots of towels and blankets under that puppy. It's a pretty one.:thmbsp:

 

[Sam Cogley]

Yowza. Hope you had lots of towels and blankets under that puppy. It's a pretty one.:thmbsp:

Cardboard to protect the seats from the pointy corners and a nice thick blanket on top of that. No damage to car or console. :thmbsp:

 

[mrarroyo]

Congratulations on the effective move, enjoy the new toy.

 

[TheRed1]

Does anyone know if it was solid or perforated?

My '59 510 has a 2-1/2 X 20" rectangular cloth-covered opening about 2" from the top of the board over the back of the speaker enclosure. 1960 appears to be the year Fisher started sealing the backs since my Premiere's speakers are fully enclosed. However, my Sister-in-law's '60 Custom Electra III is not sealed so it was apparently introduced on their upper level models first.

I love photos of consoles stuffed into cars. I've been there myself with the 510 but it got to ride up front. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pictures. Did you traverse Missouri with the top down to air out the cabinet?

 

[wiredbecker]

Congrats on the console. Your shrubbery has alopecia.

 

[Sam Cogley]

My '59 510 has a 2-1/2 X 20" rectangular cloth-covered opening about 2" from the top of the board over the back of the speaker enclosure. 1960 appears to be the year Fisher started sealing the backs since my Premiere's speakers are fully enclosed. However, my Sister-in-law's '60 Custom Electra III is not sealed so it was apparently introduced on their upper level models first.

Is there just a piece of cloth stapled across the port, or is the whole board wrapped?

I love photos of consoles stuffed into cars. I've been there myself with the 510 but it got to ride up front. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pictures. Did you traverse Missouri with the top down to air out the cabinet?

Fortunately not, we had some minor rain showers now and then - and the console would have been covered with bugs. :yuck: The first pic shows the top still up - with the legs off I had about 1" of clearance.

 

[TheRed1]

Is there just a piece of cloth stapled across the port, or is the whole board wrapped?

It's just a small piece of gray (perhaps once black) cloth stapled over the opening from the inside. Its primary function is probably as a dust deterrent.

I didn't consider the bug quotient when visualizing the C800's journey. It should have occurred to me, too, since I was just out your way and did my own transect of Missouri from St. Louis to near Willow Springs via New Haven and back again (plus the little round trip from VA to MO). My car is still splattered with a sampling of Missouri's insect kingdom - not to mention major contributions from IL, IN, KY, WV and VA.

 

[Sam Cogley]

It looks like I have an R-20! It will be here next Friday night.

 

[JohnVF]

Ooh....that's pretty. Not so pretty squeezed into a convertible, but still holds up even there. Nice work with a less-than desirable vehicle/gear size ratio.

 

[Sam Cogley]

There are advantages to owning a convertible - both in loading bigger things like this and the ability to carry long things that wouldn't otherwise fit. The only other E30 that could take that console is the wagon that was never officially imported to the US (there are a few federalized grey-market examples around, but probably less than 10).

I need to turn it over this evening and replace the rubber caps on the feet. ACE Hardware had a new set.

I'm really looking forward to getting this wee beastie running!

If only the matching record cabinet would drift by...

 

[TheRed1]

It looks like I have an R-20! It will be here next Friday night.

Way to go! Did you get the one in Washington? I would have called my brother and had him pick that one up for me except that I was pretty sure you wouldn't be able to pass it up. What will become of the Medalist II cabinet? And does the R-20 have "Medalist II" painted on the dial glass?

 

[spaceman]

Hey, there's a shrubbery that looks just like that in my front yard. The story I got was someone had a bottle rocket go awry a few years ago. :scratch2:

 

[Sam Cogley]

Way to go! Did you get the one in Washington? I would have called my brother and had him pick that one up for me except that I was pretty sure you wouldn't be able to pass it up. What will become of the Medalist II cabinet? And does the R-20 have "Medalist II" painted on the dial glass?

The one and the same. I haven't seen close up pictures of the face, if it does say "Medalist II" I'll probably remove that lettering. I think the Contemporary faceplates were blank in that area. As far as the Medalist cabinet goes, I plan to gut all of the electronics, then probably take the cabinet to one of the local charity thrifts. I already have one extra radio cabinet here that really, really needs to leave. Whichever Garrard is in better shape will end up in the Contemporary, the other will go on a shelf in the garage as spare parts. I'm not sure about the extra set of drivers.

 

[Sam Cogley]

The Medalist II arrived today, and the cabinet is already on the way out. The R20 was coated in a thick layer of dust but is in excellent, unmolested condition with Amperex EL84 outputs and a Mullard 12AX7 driver. The Garrard is a bit rough, but a good parts unit at the least - and it has another GE VR. I have a Garrard RC88 Mk.II in the garage, and that headshell still has provisions for the VR's pushbutton. As it's much more adjustable and has a much less brutal tracking force, I may end up using the RC88 in the Contemporary with only half of the tonearm connected.

The Medalist II had a solid back with no vent. It wasn't completely sealed as there were a few small cutouts for wire runs, but there was no port.

The driver compliment was a bit different in the Medalist II - it had a slightly better midrange driver (Jensen P8P vs. the unmarked Jensen-ish 8" in the C800). Both used the same Jensen P15Q 15" woofer. As an experiment, I might install a JBL D130 just to see what kind of results I get.

Someone previously installed a 5V4GA in place of the proper 5U4GA. Fortunately I have a GE sitting on my tube tester. Hopefully the 5V4 did no harm.

 

[Sam Cogley]

In addition to the better mid driver, the Medalist II had "brilliance" and "presence" control pots in the crossover network. The pots were mounted above the receiver, but the Contemporary II is much shorter in that area and has no room. I've thought about carefully drilling two holes and mounting them through the TT bay bottom. Any thoughts, pro or con?

 

[relaximus]

Except for the tuning eye, that looks a lot like the J-10 chassis in my '56 Custom Futura.

Dave

 

[Sam Cogley]

There is a lot of similarity there, down to the metal-can 6SC7. Yours doesn't have the odd ceramic cylinder device (I have yet to figure out just what it is) at the back of the R-20 chassis, either.

Most of my tuner tubes are Fisher-branded, but the 6SC7 is RCA-branded, the 12AX7 is a shield-logo Mullard and the 6BQ7s are Amperex (non-Bugle Boy). I have no idea if the non-Fisher branded tubes are original or replacements.

 

[TheRed1]

RE: the odd ceramic cylinder . . . just happen to have an R-20 schematic sitting on my desk . . . Part no. R-576-125 is a wirewound resistor (5600 ohms tapped at 100 ohms) in the power supply (R59A&B). Wattage isn't specified but it's guaranteed to be dissipating a lot of energy.