Fisher Solid State Lineup - Any Gems or mostly Duds?

[Bill Ashton]

Back in 1970, when 4ch "Quadraphonic" was starting to be introduced, Radio Schaak's first 4 ch receiver was a Fisher called the '747,' like the aircraft. Pretty sure is had an SQ decoder installed and I remember the old Fisher knobs. We had one in the store, it sounded fine, but never saw another...the one we sold never came back. Anyone else ever see one?

 

[geezin']

My '65 440T sounds wonderful. Phono stage has developed an intermittent slight hum I've yet to deal with.

 

[fred soop]

...... but I do recall very well when the very first SS equipment of any kind from Fisher first hit the electronics store I would always hang out at (receivers as I recall): it was a big disappointment for such an excellent brand as Fisher, as the units — honestly — were quickly coming back in broken as fast as they were being sold. ......

Dave

Part of the problem may have been that the earlier hybrid consoles used power amplifiers similar to the 600-T. In the consoles, Fisher controlled the speaker load. When that similar power amplifier was a separate unit, there was no inside control over what load would be connected. This resulted in the high failure rate of the TX-300 and 600-T.

 

[dcgillespie]

No doubt correct. I was just sorry to see the issue happen at the launch of their SS line. I can’t help but think the weak year over year comparison of their SS receiver sales to their vacuum tube counterpart sales,
— and the weak launch itself — were all interconnected, relative to the future events of the company.

Dave

 

[gadget73]

just seems a bit interesting to me that a product can be first out of the gate, or best out of the gate but its rarely both. Some of that early solid state gear just didn't quite seem fully sorted out. I think Sherwood had the right idea there, they waited a bit longer to switch to solid state and went direct to silicon. When I rebuilt my S9500A, the vast bulk of the problems in it were significantly off-value resistors.

my Sony reel to reel is full of germanium, they work, but its just noisy. New resistors helped a ton but there is a fair level of hiss that I'm pretty sure is just all of the Ge parts inside. Almost all original from 1964 though, the couple I found that aren't original seem to have been there a long time.

 

[FluxT]

I had a Fisher 195 a few years ago, and it was a nice little receiver in terms of build and SQ. 25wpc, 2 aux inputs, and a decent phono preamp. I sold it because it made an annoying "thump" when I turned it on. Looking at the rest of their lineup from this era (what little I can find of it), it seems like they didn't do much to advertise or distinguish these units from each other. My 195 seems to be identical to a 201 or 202 minus the case, and their TOTL(?) 215 was only packing 40 watts per channel. That must have been a bit confusing and underwhelming for prospective shoppers back then, especially compared to the more clearly-delineated lineups of the competition.