New to vintage hi-fi and got lucky!!!

W

w8khz

New Member
Hi all,

For years, my main hobby has been ham radio... particularly vintage ham radio. I love to operate gear from the 30's - 50's and have played with tube gear for a long time, however to this point, it has been primarily radio gear. Well last winter I met a guy who is into vintage audio and was invited to his house where I saw a couple of dynaco amps glowing away. I'm no stranger to tubes but they were pretty and they sounded nice so I started thinking maybe I should have something like that too!! Well every year in May I attend "Hamvention" the big ham radio convention/fleamarket in Dayton, OH. While I was there I bumped into a guy I know from my hometown who had brought a car load of stuff to sell. As we were chatting I mentioned that I was looking for a tube stereo amp but didn't want to spend much money. After thinking for a bit, a light bulb went off in his head and he mentioned that he might just have an amp I would be interested in. Well.... he pulls it out and tells me that if I want it, I can have it.... FREE!! .... and if that wasn't good enough, he pulls out two other pieces that go with it... a control amp and an FM tuner. So what did he give me??? Well... it was a Fisher SA-300 amp, a 400-C control amp and an FM-80 tuner!! I brought it all home did some recapping and general maintenance and now it is all wired up and playing beautifully!! I love to turn out the lights and just watch it glow!! I do have the cover for the SA-300 but leave it off just for that reason!! So as you can see, I really lucked out.... I have attached a few pictures for your viewing pleasure..... enjoy!!

Brian
Traverse City, MI
 

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With you being a ham guy, I'm sure you know that those will need to be freshened up to operate safely. If I could only have one Fisher system, that would be it.:thmbsp:
 
Nice! Make sure that shelf is strong enough to hold the amp, you wouldn't want to find it on the floor dented and broken!:thmbsp:
 
Great looking gear.:thmbsp:

May I make a suggestion? I see that you have your speaker wire and RCA cables bundled together. Separate them and run the RCA cables to one side and the speaker wires to the other, isolating them from each other as much as possible. I think you'll appreciate the sonic benefits.

Welcome to AK!

Ken
 
Very nice, congratulations on your haul! The Fisher amp looks like it has 2 rectifier tubes and a real nice hefty power transformer, unlike what Dynaco used on their ST-70.

I guess this Fisher amp was designed to be installed inside a console looking at the placement of the tubes and transformers and the rest of the connections for the speakers and input.

Sal
 
Nice score, and worth WAY more than what you paid for it. :)

I like the loudness countour on the pre. I thought Yamaha came up with that idea. The power amp is awesome.
 
w8khz said:
Hi all,

Well every year in May I attend "Hamvention" the big ham radio convention/fleamarket in Dayton, OH.
Brian
Traverse City, MI
Click to expand...

Travel from Traverse City to Dayton? In Cherry season? That's a pretty good trip, but it sure looks like it was worth it.

As they say in Hamtramck, "next year in Dayton"
 
Wow, great find! Love those Fishers.

That's almost identical to the set that JohnVF just picked up a couple of days ago in Chicagoland. I've obviously got to move further into mid-country.

Enjoy the music:music:
 
When I was a kid back in the 50's, a friend of my dad had an old Fisher mono tube amp and preamp driving a single speaker cabinet (15" woofer, horn and compression driver) in his living room. I was knocked out by the sound coming from the big speaker cabinet. All I had ever heard before that was my portable phonograph box with built in speaker, and the one speaker in-dash car radios of that era. I think I became an audio addict that day.

If Fisher had continued it's commitment to that level of equipment performance from that time until today, it's brand name, and equipment would be as highly sought after as McIntosh is today. Unfortunately, the ship sailed without them. Even worse, they piggy backed on their old reputation through the years until it became a joke. That is a shame in my opinion.

I am pleased to see some of the old Fisher equipment still making someone happy.
 
Nice setup, when I started getting into hi fi Fisher was considered a joke, Then I came across a Fisher 400 and realized what they once were. That was my first stereo receiver I bought used while in high school and I still use it. The tube sound bit me and I now have many vintage tube pieces.
 
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