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harmon kardon award series or fisher x-100?

cicero2

cicero2

Super Member
hey, i've been gone awhile (and gave away my kenwood tube receiver in the meantime) anxious to get tubes again . . . found a fisher x-100 on CL, found a harmon kardon award series fa 3000x and Heathkit W4-AM amp and W-2 preamp pairs

price range:

h/k - 100
fisher - 300
heathkit - 320

the h/k has some phono issues
the fisher has some stereo issues
the heathkit has some guy-doesn't-respond issues

any thoughts?
 
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IF the heathkits W4s can be had AND the transformers are good, I'd go that direction. My next choice is Fisher and then the H/K. ANY vintage tube gear needs a refurb. If you aren't diy then you need to factor in that cost. The he-doesn't-respond problem may be Thanksgiving.
 
seller of the heathkits says he was using them a month ago and that they function fine.

why the fisher over the h/k?

p.s. i'm not all that diy

thanks
 
Unless the Fisher is cosmetically excellent, $300 is on the high side. Not unfair, just on the high side.
 
alright, well i think i'm going to go w/ the 3rd tier h/k, cuz it is a third cheaper. unless someone comvinces me that it is a third of the quality of the fisher . .

thanks for the advice
 
I had a HK award series integrated...it was nothing special, imho. I sold it without the tubes for about what I paid for it, had some nice tubes if I remember correctly, it should have sounded better.

Fisher also have nice tubes but sound better.

I'd go with the Heathkit.
 
arg!

so the seller of the fisher is typical sf dude - out of work, etc. so i feel sorta bad for him. but really, how much better does the fisher sound than the h/k?
 
cicero2 said:
...how much better does the fisher sound than the h/k?
Click to expand...
I have a Fisher 400 and a HK A500 (award series) and IMHO it is not a night and day difference. Yes the Fisher is better but not by so much that they aren't in the same ballpark.

I have never heard of the H/K model you named so I can't say how good it really is. What output tubes does it use?

I have always heard good things about that Fisher model though. I personally like the sound of EL84 amps. I also think the Fisher will go up in value more than the H/K will.

BTW, SF craigslist has more tube stuff listed in week than Vegas does in a year! Maybe it's time for a road trip.
 
The HK award series integrated that I had sounded okay, but surprisingly not as good as my single-ended Magnavox 6BQ5! I think the HK amp used 7XXX output tubes, like 7408 or 7591's, something like that.

Could be that my HK wasn't up to snuff, had worn tubes or old caps. It wasn't bad....just not as good as I thought it would be. It did have some power.

But now I think about his HK...$100 isn't bad. Sorry I'm probably not helping, lol. Hey if they are original HK tubes and test ok, they are probably worth almost as much as the amp.
 
idatlof and nirky - thank you.

idatlof - i know what you mean about sf CL. though lately there has been a lot more tube stuff than irememberfrom the past - but when i shop cl for friends in ohio there's almost nothing. except that time some lady found a marantz 7 in her parent's basement . . . and got upset when she got 50+ replies about it ('it doesn't even have a radio! . . . how are you guys offering me thousands for it?!' i think she sold it to some lucky ak-er for about $50)
but i did give my kenwood kw-60 and pair of wharfedale 70s to the cincy friend as a belated wedding gift. seemed like the kenwood sounded better than the fisher or the h/k. but then the kenwood was hooked up the the wharfes - the fisher was hooked to the seller's shite sonys and i screwed around w/ the tone and tried to show him how bad it sounded. told him i'd rather hear it at my place and he said he'd drive it here. the h/k was played in another awful acoustic sitch but on a single jbl - sounded better

anyway, idatlof, if you need a place to crash here in sf and you're not totally nutz, i have a couch (and amoeba records is an up and down up and down walk from here). well, again if you're decent and do plan on coming here tell.

that's all for tonight, gotta work tomorrow (thanksgiving)
 
forgot the most important thing - the kenwood that used to be mine - it had this ability to add insane depth to certain recordings. esp. psyche stuff - which isn't even listened to on my SS gear now. the kw-60 was f-ed up, but when i listened to recs that were rec-ed on tube gear there was no comparison to SS, even some techno sounded absolutely crazy-better

any thoughts on if any of the possibilities are going to be that way (the kenwood had more tubes, a lot more, than waht i'm looking at now

having trouble finding the alphabet on the keyboard, gotta sleep.
 
Are you in SF or cleveland? If you are shopping the X-100 on SF craigslist, I wouldn't give the guy $300 for that one. It's not perfect and the tubes aren't original. If you could get it for about $200, I'd take it. I wouldn't buy any vintage tube gear though, if I wasn't ready to refurb it. 40+YO caps just don't like 120 volts - it's not unusual to have a failure and take a transformer along with it. The Heaths look interesting and the one has been recapped with Hovlands which are nice caps. The one replaced transformer would be my concern and whether the pair sounded matched...but it would be worth a listen.
 
jcmjrt - i'm in sf - he said it was refurbed by some guy in san jose (the fisher), but i forgot to say it doesn't have a cage. yeah, i was going to talk the guy down on the $.

ah, i haven't edited my profile.
 
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ldatlof said:
I have a Fisher 400 and a HK A500 (award series) and IMHO it is not a night and day difference. Yes the Fisher is better but not by so much that they aren't in the same ballpark.

I have never heard of the H/K model you named so I can't say how good it really is. What output tubes does it use?

I have always heard good things about that Fisher model though. I personally like the sound of EL84 amps. I also think the Fisher will go up in value more than the H/K will.

BTW, SF craigslist has more tube stuff listed in week than Vegas does in a year! Maybe it's time for a road trip.
Click to expand...

The HK 500 is a hole different animal then the fa-3000X.


I say

1) Heathkits but these will require a preamp

2) Fisher X-100 this is a great EL84 amplifier

3) HK
 
Happy Thanksgiving!

Nirky: The HK A500 has been totally recapped including the power supply. It uses 7355 output tubes. The Fisher 400 has been serviced by NOSValves and it plays perfectly. So comparison wise, they are both running as good as they can.

I agree with you on the Maggie SE EL84. My Amp83 sounds excellent. Shockingly good. I don't have it in my system as much as I would like because sometimes I like to crank the volume and it runs out of steam. But play it at moderate to loud levels and it is just gorgeous. I also have a Sargent-Rayment PP EL84 amp that puts out 17wpc and it sounds awesome too. Not as sweet as the Maggie though. There is magic in those EL84 tubes. I just switched it out of my system and replaced it with a pair of Quad II monoblocks.

cicero2: I am not totally nuts, just partially nuts. Actually, I am the sanest person I know.:D Thanks for the invite.:thmbsp: If I ever do make it to SF, it will be on a weekend when Jacqui Naylor is playing and that means the wife will be in tow. She's more of a hotel person than a let's crash on a total stranger's couch person.

Anyway, I am very interested to see which amp you choose. Good luck.
 
The FA-3000X looks to be the same amp and preamp section of the Award A300. 7408/6V6 outputs.

That said, MY HK Award A300 is DEFINITELY something special. In fact, I've never heard a BETTER sounding 15-watt-or-under-per-channel tube amp, to date.

Of course, mine has been updated a bit- completely rebuilt phono stage (ditched those ceramic-encased "integrated circuit" cap-resistor combo packs and rebuilt with discrete components), better coupling caps and such. Tubes are all stock- TELEFUNKEN 12AX7s and 12AU7. One pair of the outputs have been replaced (with 7408s, to match the other channel).

Mine is so good, that when it was over at BrassTeacher's house getting the phono stage upgraded, his wife threatened to NOT let him give it back to me... :D

Regards,
Gordon.
 
so the harmon kardon is a definite 'no' for me - it is 'motor-boating' in the phono section and doens't sound great in the aux. has a bunch of general electric tubes in it - maybe it would sound better w/ different tubes.
 
GE tubes are generally well respected. As far as the motorboating, that's a bad cap....one that should be replaced along with most of the other vintage caps in the unit....just like with almost all vintage units. You can recap most of these amps for very little money and get good results. My guess is that you could probably redo it easily for $70...and some soldering fumes.
 
jcmjrt - thank you. if anything, i think i'll go w/ either the fisher or the heathkits ~ both sellers are itching to sell them. the fish seller told me he'd sell it for 230. says that's considerably less than what he paid for it.

i've not had separates before. except when i was in cleveland and landlord/friend had mark levinson pre, and a carver amp (also a threshold that wasn't working), but the acoustics in that room were terrible.
anyway, i don't understand why separates are better. nor do i understand how the heathkits would produce stereo.

the fish only works in mono. neither of us know why. any ideas?

the h/k is at 101 music if anybody wants it. lowered to $75. it has been there a while, i'm told.
 
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