Lets talk about Fisher ST Series Speakers.

[newclassA]

Are they any good, If you have one?
How do you like them?
What type of music will benefit from these?
Is there a receiver/speaker combination that will work better?

I have got a pair of ST-730 in decent condition with all original driver/radiator.
Here are some picture and info about them.

 

[swechsler]

I don't remember if I have heard these or not, but I do remember when they were current models back in the day. Most (but not all) Sanyo-era Fisher speakers are not particularly good, but in general they got progressively worse as time went on. I believe these date from the late 1970s, so they're relatively early. They should work fine with pretty much any amp with 20 watts or more per channel, since power was a lot more expensive back them.

My suspicion is that they will not have a particularly extended top end. At their age, their crossover capacitors should be replaced, which is a relatively inexpensive repair (assuming you can use a soldering iron). I'd probably do that and then consider replacing the tweeters if I liked how the bass and midrange sounded.

 

[NH-MAN]

Wow very efficient speakers at 107dB, how do they sound to you as thats all that matters. They wont dig down low (according to specs) but you can put them in a corner and or on the floor and see if that helps some.

 

[FluxT]

To my knowledge, Fisher’s never made a high-grade speaker. Their old XP-series was apparently decent, but the later DS/ST/STV lines followed Fisher’s trajectory into ugly rack systems. That’s not to say they were necessarily bad-I had a relatively tame pair of DS-series speakers that got me started in the hobby, and I gave them to a friend who loves ‘em. They sound nice as they are, albeit a bit tinny and rolled off. A real crossover and better tweeter would probably turn them into ass-kickers, for sure.

If they sound good to you, then enjoy the music they make.

 

[newclassA]

Thank you guys for your thoughtful input. My problem is, every speaker that I listen to, something about them, I like. Overall they are decent, not boomy, high's are good, mid is not over taking. They sounded better than the HPM 40 I have. I had some time today, so dived inside, took some pictures. On the woofer magnet is tiny stamped JVC/Fisher, mid and tweeter are by Foster. The xover also did not bring any respect to them until I really listen them (Leonard Cohen and Ravi Shankar). I run a JVC JR-S300 and Realistic STA2000. Did not have a chance to compare them with the Mach ones.

 

[sax6]

Where is the damping material ? Was there any ? Clean settled crossover BTW.

 

[newclassA]

Where is the damping material ? Was there any ? Clean settled crossover BTW.

There is a thin layer of glass wool.

 

[coonmanx]

Will get loud quickly. Probably came from a rack system. Lots of better speakers out there....

 

[srinath]

My first speaker when I fell down the rabbit hole was a ST740 that I got with no woofers, ripped mids and I dont rememeber the tweeters situation.
I put in Dayton's DC300's, a Jamo mid both out of parts express, and have swapped tweeters from the round emit copy ribbon's available then from apex jr's site to the neo 8" transducer that I hung out of the cabinet.
This was my "test" bed for tweeters effectively.
The cabinet is thick wall MDF but the damping was non existent atleast in mine. I added damping and even a brace IIRC. This box will play well enough and since I am limited by the components I put in, well, I dont see how you can get better out of a DC300 - that's the limitation.

Now A 100% original ST 740 in near mint condition has turned up near me. Tempted to get it and "compare".

 

[Dave07997S]

I had these speakers back in the early 80s, I worked all summer at a car wash to get them. They were not part of a rack system. I bought these before I joined the Army and I had quite a small room and a Fisher RS-2010 was pushing these. They sounded very good, but the room wasn't big enough to take full advantage of these speakers and the amount of power the RS-2010 provided. When I left to the Army my mother moved from Phoenix (where I grew up) to Los Angeles and the speakers were severely damaged in the move.

Yes Fisher made a lot junk back then ( as did a lot of other manufacturers, it seems that only Fisher seems to get the blame for this) but they also had some really good equipment but you had to go beyond really affordable items to the top end of their catalog.

 

[Joe_dirt]

Are they any good, If you have one?
How do you like them?
What type of music will benefit from these?
Is there a receiver/speaker combination that will work better?

I have got a pair of ST-730 in decent condition with all original driver/radiator.
Here are some picture and info about them.

I have a set of st-828 speakers hooked up to a technics sa-800. They have amazing bass even though the woofers are super light. (Im used to working on cerwin vegas so I dont know if that is a reasonable comparison.) The mids and highs are not the best they sound muffled. I compared these to a set of cerwin vega d3 speakers and they had what the other didn't. The D3's have great mids and highs that are a lot clearer than the st-828's but the st-828's blow the d3's out of the water when it comes to bass. I wouldn't say the st/stv series are amazing BUT I wouldn't say they are garbage. I think if you can find a good condition set of st/stv speakers for $100 or less it would be a good deal. I just bought a pair of stv-887a's for a total of $300. I probably way overpaid but I'm excited to get them. They were expensive because of the shipping. I paid $150 for the speakers before tax and all that

 

[djbuszko]

My Neighbor just gave me a set of ST460's.
The foam on the one woofer needs replacing, and also on all 4 mid range. The one woofer was replaced with a clear HiTech woofer. I haven't hooked them up yet in fear of damage because of the rotting foam.
Is re-foaming an easy DIY? also would you just replace the bad speakers with something better?

 

[loudnoises]

My Neighbor just gave me a set of ST460's.
The foam on the one woofer needs replacing, and also on all 4 mid range. The one woofer was replaced with a clear HiTech woofer. I haven't hooked them up yet in fear of damage because of the rotting foam.
Is re-foaming an easy DIY? also would you just replace the bad speakers with something better?

Replacing drivers with non original is not generally advised. Won't sound right. You can try to spec an appropriate replacement, but refoaming isn't that hard, and you'll get some good practice.

It's s pretty handy, if not required skill if you're into old speakers. Very very few foam surrounds make it past 30 years, and paying someone to do it will quickly blow past the value of most drivers...

 

[djbuszko]

Replacing drivers with non original is not generally advised. Won't sound right. You can try to spec an appropriate replacement, but refoaming isn't that hard, and you'll get some good practice.

It's s pretty handy, if not required skill if you're into old speakers. Very very few foam surrounds make it past 30 years, and paying someone to do it will quickly blow past the value of most drivers...

I will give it a shot, any tips and who offers the best refoam kits.

 

[djbuszko]

Here is a pic of the speakers. The one woofer is changed to a HiTech. I kind of like to look of the clear basket, I have yet to hook them up. the cabs are in good shape, the grill cloth is okay.

 

[djbuszko]

I picked up the refoam kits from simplyspeakers.com . It wasn't as easy as videos present. It took me the best part of a week to get both of them completed. I was able to source a OEM woofer, it needed refoaming. Cleaning the old glue was the most difficult and saving the outer fiber surround. This is why it took my a while to finish these for my first job. Aligning the voice coil was not as difficult as i thought with out taking the dust cover off. Ran a 30hz signal to align. to get the fiber surround glued wonce the foam was secure to the speaker cone and to the basket, I glued the fiber surround, let it get tacky and then flipped over the speaker on a flat surface like my floor and a 100lb weight plate. I let that stay like that for 48hrs. reinstalled all speakers, after cleaning a polishing screw heads. Once hooked up tested on at a time, i thought i had blown the mids, but it turned out to be a dirty mid adjustment switch, dexoit and fader lub and reflowed the solder on both and they work awesome. The sound is huge, the bass is very thumpy but with the adjustments on the mids and highs you get a decent balance, i have then set flat.

I would like to rescreen the grills not sure how hard this would be.
I will make a video and post.. of how they sound with my Pioneer SX-3900.

 

[swechsler]

If the grille frames are wood, replacing the cloth is pretty easy with a staple gun (or glue, if they were previously glued). If they're plastic you'll have to use adhesive (I believe I've seen 3M spray adhesive recommended here) but still not a huge job. There should be Youtube videos with instructions.

If you haven't already done so, I'd recommend replacing the capacitors in the crossovers. These speakers are from the 1970s or early 80s, so they're almost definitely out of spec.

 

[djbuszko]

If the grille frames are wood, replacing the cloth is pretty easy with a staple gun (or glue, if they were previously glued). If they're plastic you'll have to use adhesive (I believe I've seen 3M spray adhesive recommended here) but still not a huge job. There should be Youtube videos with instructions.

If you haven't already done so, I'd recommend replacing the capacitors in the crossovers. These speakers are from the 1970s or early 80s, so they're almost definitely out of spec.

They are stapled, which would make me think the framing is wood, could they be plastic? eve with staples

 

[swechsler]

Most likely wood. Plastic doesn't hold staples well.

 

[djbuszko]

Most likely wood. Plastic doesn't hold staples well.

That is good to know, thank you!