Goin to look at a Fisher 400...What to look for ?

Hello, new to this and know little about tubes. I will be looking at a Fisher 400that is suppose to be in good working order per what seller has stated. He has had it for two years and is unaware of any changes or mods done. He has not had any serivice work done to it.

1) What do I look for when inspecting prior to purchase..Any components that should be inspected or tell tal signs of present or future issues ?
2) If all checks out are there things that should do after purchase to aide in its performance and/or tube life is there any periodic maintanace that should be preformed ?
3) He is asking $250.00 what do these go for ? Is it a fare price ?

I have read some threads on the Fisher 400 and general conscensus is they are a good first tube reciever...Any others out there to consider ?
FYI if I get it I will be useing Klipsch LaScalas

thanks in advance.

Here are some pics of the Fisher 400 goin to look at.
thanks again

Look for Fisher branded tubes preferably made in Great Britain (Mullards) or West Germany (Telefunkens). I don't know much about the 7868 output tubes, but original Fisher 12AX7 tubes in good working order are worth at least $25.00 each. Other tubes are fine, but it's always nice to get some top of the line old tubes if you can; frosting on the cake and all.......
Then check out the caps to see if there looks to be newer than 40+ year old ones in there. you probably should expect to have to do some cap work on a receive that old, so if it's been done, you're ahead of the game.

Look at the cosmetics too. Scratched faceplates are almost impossible to restore, so factor that into your decision. The electronics can be repaired, but a nasty scratch is a whole other thing.

Good luck!!

if you can test the output and input tubes, do it. output tubes with long life left will save you $100+ and same for 12ax7's. it's not a big enough reason walk away, but maybe you can lower the price if there are any bad tubes. check and make sure all the transformers are ok by giving it a listen for more than 10 minutes if you can and see if they sound the same or if the irons get hot. minor hum or unbalanced channels can be taken care of by replacing the capacitors and cleaning the pots - which you will have to do anyways with any vintage gear.
$250 is a good price if there aren't any major fault - specially with the wooden case i believe i see from your pictures.

Here's what the combo looks like.

If it's never been serviced, it will probably need it. There are some excellent threads on restoring the 400 on our boards. It is a fine sounding receiver when brought up to spec.

Good luck!

Don't be tempted to power it up with no load connected to the speaker outputs, it's possible to cause some damage that way. If the seller has no speakers to connect consider taking your own or at the very least take a couple of power resistors to connect across the speaker outputs.

Watch for glowing plates in any of the output tubes. Not a good thing but usually easily repairable.

Brad

Urizen said:

Here's what the combo looks like.

If it's never been serviced, it will probably need it. There are some excellent threads on restoring the 400 on our boards. It is a fine sounding receiver when brought up to spec.

Good luck!

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that set up is really nice....sonically and cosmetically.
fisher, klipsh, and the martin....very nice.

bowtieman427 said:

Hello, new to this and know little about tubes. I will be looking at a Fisher 400that is suppose to be in good working order per what seller has stated. He has had it for two years and is unaware of any changes or mods done. He has not had any serivice work done to it.

1) What do I look for when inspecting prior to purchase..Any components that should be inspected or tell tal signs of present or future issues ?
2) If all checks out are there things that should do after purchase to aide in its performance and/or tube life is there any periodic maintanace that should be preformed ?
3) He is asking $250.00 what do these go for ? Is it a fare price ?

I have read some threads on the Fisher 400 and general conscensus is they are a good first tube reciever...Any others out there to consider ?
FYI if I get it I will be useing Klipsch LaScalas

thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Look for a clean chassis with nice cosmetics. Lets face it it's over 40 years old and the internals are tired. If you listen to it keep in mind this is the case and it dosen't sound the way it did as new.
One thing you can look at is how well the tuner pulls in stations and holds them. It will indicate how far off the alignment is.
Do not pull out all the tubes when you get it. Do one at a time or carefully mark them where they go. This is especially important for the tuner alignment.
First thing you need to do after you get it is contact (unless your adept at electronics)one of the gentlemen here that rebuild these pieces and have it redone. or even before hand so you have an idea what it will take.
New tubes are available and quite nice. The Sovtek 12ax7lps and EH 7868 will do nicely in this piece.
If you are happy with looking at it knowing it's going to need to be dressed out, $250 is a good price.

one thing too,
when i bought my 400 it had telefunken 12ax7's tubes in it
i gave the seller a depost and when i picked it up a few days later he had swap the telefunkens for cheap usa made tubes
and when i went back to him, he said he didn't know nothing about it

fisherlover said:

one thing too,
when i bought my 400 it had telefunken 12ax7's tubes in it
i gave the seller a depost and when i picked it up a few days later he had swap the telefunkens for cheap usa made tubes
and when i went back to him, he said he didn't know nothing about it

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bait & switch - terrible!

I hope you didn't accept it in that condition for the original agreed-on price. I certainly would not.

BTW - Urizen - whew! Need any roommates???

fisherlover said:

one thing too,
when i bought my 400 it had telefunken 12ax7's tubes in it
i gave the seller a depost and when i picked it up a few days later he had swap the telefunkens for cheap usa made tubes
and when i went back to him, he said he didn't know nothing about it

Click to expand...

hate those kinda bastards....:thumbsdn:

Hi, I have owned a 400 for 8 months and used it extensively to play through Klipsch Forte II's (upgraded), it was quite nice and gave no problems, I only sold it a I already had a 500-B and just got one of the most pristine 800-C's with gold faceplate "Executive". Right now both do not have cabinets, and am making two (I make cabinets). You will be very pleased. Remember, if it starts to act up - crackles, snaps, pops - just kidding, it will sound worse. Stop and send it in for repair, and have the old capacitors, resistors, etc replaced and a general tune up. On my Forte II's, I never turned it past 12 o'clock position and it played quite loud. Enjoy.

gadget73 said:

I hope you didn't accept it in that condition for the original agreed-on price. I certainly would not.

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didn't know till i got it home

If he says it's working, then I assume you'll be able to turn it on and listen to it. Make sure to test as many functions as are available, that is listen to FM, test the Aux by listening to a CD player, etc.. If he has a turntable, listen to that as well. If he doesn't have it hooked up, take a small pair of speakers and speaker wire with you so you can test it. Take a cd player or iPod with you for a source to test the Aux input.

If it's not hooked up or he won't let you listen to it, walk.

If it works well, and the cosmetic condition is good, then $250 is a fair price. Not a great price, but a fair price. However, (it's kind of hard to tell) it appears from the pics that it might have a cabinet. Does it? Is the cabinet included? If it includes an original Fisher cabinet, in good condition, with the aluminum grill in good condition, then $250 is a steal. Cabinet alone is worth around $150.

I can't tell from the pics if the front panel is good. It should have no major scratches, and all of the lettering, especially around the volume control, should be there. If not, front panels come up on eBay from time to time, usually selling for $30-50.

The on/off switch is a notorious problem in all Fisher tube receivers. If it's bad, that's another $50.

Since you said you're pretty new to tubes, I figure that means you won't be toting a good tube tester along with you. If it works OK, then the tubes are OK for the time being. As several posters have mentioned, Fisher-branded tubes have collector value, but not having them will not make your receiver worth less than the asking price. Having all Fisher tubes will make $250 an even better deal!

Any significant rust or corrosion on the chassis will not affect the operation, but will lower the value.

It may have an original selenium rectifier. (It's a small thin silver rectangular object attached to the inside of the chassis next to the big orange paper capacitor) If so, it should be replaced with a new bridge and a new resistor to keep the bias voltage within limits. You should also replace the capacitor in the bias circuit, (that's the big orange one) and the four coupling capacitors. If you can do this yourself, it's less than $20 for parts. If you have somebody else do it, perhaps $200, depending on who does the work. Of course, unless he's going to let you take it out of the case, pull the bottom panel and go poking around inside, you won't know any of this until after you buy it. The good news is whether or not this work has been done is certainly not a buy/don't buy thing. If it's done, bonus. If not, you can do it.

Don't misunderstand the phrase "good first tube receiver". There are many, many Fisher collectors who consider the 400 to be one of the best Fisher receivers since it has fewer components in the signal path than, for example, a 500C. It's a terrific receiver and will keep you happy for a long time.

Good luck!

man i want one of those too? i'm concerned about the power though, what kind of speakers other than horns can you use?

roseskunk said:

man i want one of those too? i'm concerned about the power though, what kind of speakers other than horns can you use?

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You can use any speakers you want. You certainly aren't limited to horns. I'm currently running Paradigm Mini-Monitors on a 400, but I've also used Klipsch KG-4's, JBL L100's, B&W DM-330i's, Advents, etc.. Very low efficiency (much below 88 or so) will limit the maximum volume you can get, but unless you really like window-rattling, you shouldn't have a problem at all.

Fisherdude said:

You can use any speakers you want.

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:yes: Same experience here. In addition to the La Scalas, I've used the 400 on Klipsch KG4, KLH Models Six and Seventeen, and B&W DM 602 s2 with fine results.

IIRC, it's output is 27 WPC Push-Pull.

Urizen said:

Here's what the combo looks like.

If it's never been serviced, it will probably need it. There are some excellent threads on restoring the 400 on our boards. It is a fine sounding receiver when brought up to spec.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Martin guitar optional, I'm sure.