I have not been buying vintage receivers much lately, in fact I have been selling (sold 4 in the past two months). But that does not stop me from looking of course. Some receivers I buy and sell, never for a loss but not huge profits either.....some I just want to see and listen to in person. The ones I like I tend to keep and the ones that are ok but not thrilling I tend to flip. One brand I have not had yet is Fisher. I know that the Fisher units before Emerson and Sanyo bought the company are considered true Fishers to many and I dont dispute that. I have zero interest in tubes and the early SS Fishers command prices more than I care to spend for a receiver.
I know the basic history of Fisher and how Sanyo pretty much destroyed it's reputation by 1980. As someone who worked for Sears from 1984-2004 in electronics and appliances (and as department and store manager) I am very familiar with Sanyo. They actually made some really good Kenmore microwaves and small refers. They also bought the Warwick TV plant in the US from Whirlpool in the 60s and built some very long lasting products up until the late 80s. Sears and Sanyo had a long and close relationship and many Sears audio and later LXI labeled products were made by Sanyo. The LXI stuff was rather crappy by the mid 80s and even working at Sears at the time we were all so glad when we started selling Pioneer in 1987-88. Sanyo was very capable of making really good quality gear when they wanted to and they could make some wretched junk when Sears wanted to sell something really cheap. Now the Fisher and Sanyo brands are dead since they were bought by Panasonic in 2012.
Over the years I have seen these "Sears Audio By Fisher" receivers and the nostalgic part of me wanted something with the Sears name that was decent stuff but there was always another brand I wanted to buy first. Fast forward to last week when I was cruising through eBay out of boredom mostly. I have not bought anything big and electronic from eBay for over a year just because it is such a hassle if there is something wrong. I saw several of these SABF units, most were in the mid $100s to mid $200s with one "serviced" one at $349. The new thing for eBay sellers to do is say the unit is not tested or just plugged in so they hope they wont have to take it back. I am a seller on there also so I understand where they are coming from, but I dont buy from sellers like that when there are plenty that actually test what they sell and tell the truth about it. That is why I read the ad for this unit. The seller said all the lights and functions work but all the pots were dirty and the volume scratchy. Fair enough. He had it listed for $100 OBO with $20 shipping (since he was in CA it was pretty cheap). I figured, what the hell, I have never had a Fisher and it is a Sears one as well. So I offered him $50 figuring he would laugh his ass off and say no and that would be it since I have been downsizing. 30 seconds later the offer was accepted and I got it yesterday carefully packed.
I plugged it in without speakers and it lit right up, no sparks or funny smells. I then hooked up my test speakers (Polk TSX110s) and sure enough it was super scratchy! I flipped it to FM and it found a local station, the Stereo light lit and the meter centered and the station sounded great and all this with NO antenna connected! OK, I was fairly impressed at that point. I got the top off and it was dusty but not horrible. I needed to take the bottom off to get to the pots, but once I did it was the easiest access I have ever dealt with. Two minutes later the pots were lubed. I put the knobs (another nice feature is that there is the big tuning knob and all the rest are identical) in the ultrasonic cleaner and threw some Feed N Wax on the cabinet.
As I write this long winded post, the receiver is playing Spotify through my cell phone and blowing my hair back. The stupid old thing works perfectly. Every single function works like it should and it has plenty of power.
And that leads me to ask for some opinions. I know it is difficult without hearing it, but care to take a guess at the output? The input wattage shows 190W and I know that could mean many things, but I am guessing at around 40-45 WPC. This is a mid line unit (it has the center of channel meter and not the light) and it does not have the pre outs like some other models I have seen that I assume are higher up in the line. The Polk speakers are 90 db sensitive and I pushed them as hard as I could stand in my dining room and never even came close to clipping. I am also guessing the year of production is around 1975 or so. It was after that that the Fisher stuff went to the silver tuner dial but I would love some input on that as well. Last night I put it in one of my bedroom systems and hooked it to my ancient set of Nova 7s and it sounded nice, not thrilling, but nice. After an hour or so of that, I swapped out the Novas for my set of Sansui SP 70 two ways and the sound went from not thrilling to very nice. I have bought and seen enough beat up crappy receivers to know the difference between a worn out unit and one that may be a bit dirty but in good condition. This one appears to be a lightly used one that just sat for years without being used.
Is it super rare or valuable? Nope. Is it something that Audiophiles drool over? Nope. Is it something that a person like me that finds the more rare and unusual brands interesting? Yep. The fact that it works and cleaned up so well means that even though I bought it to listen and flip, I will just sell something else and keep this one around a while.
When I saw another Pioneer unit on here that somebody had just bought and I thought "I hope I never lose the simple pleasure I get from seeing and using the lowly vintage receiver. " Very few people in this hobby start off with a TOTL system and units like this are what have sparked many a hobbyist to a loooooong journey into a rabbit hole.
Before:
This pic shows how stupid easy to clean the pots is when the bottom is removed.
After cleaning.
Edit: I changed my power estimate to 40-45 wpc.
I know the basic history of Fisher and how Sanyo pretty much destroyed it's reputation by 1980. As someone who worked for Sears from 1984-2004 in electronics and appliances (and as department and store manager) I am very familiar with Sanyo. They actually made some really good Kenmore microwaves and small refers. They also bought the Warwick TV plant in the US from Whirlpool in the 60s and built some very long lasting products up until the late 80s. Sears and Sanyo had a long and close relationship and many Sears audio and later LXI labeled products were made by Sanyo. The LXI stuff was rather crappy by the mid 80s and even working at Sears at the time we were all so glad when we started selling Pioneer in 1987-88. Sanyo was very capable of making really good quality gear when they wanted to and they could make some wretched junk when Sears wanted to sell something really cheap. Now the Fisher and Sanyo brands are dead since they were bought by Panasonic in 2012.
Over the years I have seen these "Sears Audio By Fisher" receivers and the nostalgic part of me wanted something with the Sears name that was decent stuff but there was always another brand I wanted to buy first. Fast forward to last week when I was cruising through eBay out of boredom mostly. I have not bought anything big and electronic from eBay for over a year just because it is such a hassle if there is something wrong. I saw several of these SABF units, most were in the mid $100s to mid $200s with one "serviced" one at $349. The new thing for eBay sellers to do is say the unit is not tested or just plugged in so they hope they wont have to take it back. I am a seller on there also so I understand where they are coming from, but I dont buy from sellers like that when there are plenty that actually test what they sell and tell the truth about it. That is why I read the ad for this unit. The seller said all the lights and functions work but all the pots were dirty and the volume scratchy. Fair enough. He had it listed for $100 OBO with $20 shipping (since he was in CA it was pretty cheap). I figured, what the hell, I have never had a Fisher and it is a Sears one as well. So I offered him $50 figuring he would laugh his ass off and say no and that would be it since I have been downsizing. 30 seconds later the offer was accepted and I got it yesterday carefully packed.
I plugged it in without speakers and it lit right up, no sparks or funny smells. I then hooked up my test speakers (Polk TSX110s) and sure enough it was super scratchy! I flipped it to FM and it found a local station, the Stereo light lit and the meter centered and the station sounded great and all this with NO antenna connected! OK, I was fairly impressed at that point. I got the top off and it was dusty but not horrible. I needed to take the bottom off to get to the pots, but once I did it was the easiest access I have ever dealt with. Two minutes later the pots were lubed. I put the knobs (another nice feature is that there is the big tuning knob and all the rest are identical) in the ultrasonic cleaner and threw some Feed N Wax on the cabinet.
As I write this long winded post, the receiver is playing Spotify through my cell phone and blowing my hair back. The stupid old thing works perfectly. Every single function works like it should and it has plenty of power.
And that leads me to ask for some opinions. I know it is difficult without hearing it, but care to take a guess at the output? The input wattage shows 190W and I know that could mean many things, but I am guessing at around 40-45 WPC. This is a mid line unit (it has the center of channel meter and not the light) and it does not have the pre outs like some other models I have seen that I assume are higher up in the line. The Polk speakers are 90 db sensitive and I pushed them as hard as I could stand in my dining room and never even came close to clipping. I am also guessing the year of production is around 1975 or so. It was after that that the Fisher stuff went to the silver tuner dial but I would love some input on that as well. Last night I put it in one of my bedroom systems and hooked it to my ancient set of Nova 7s and it sounded nice, not thrilling, but nice. After an hour or so of that, I swapped out the Novas for my set of Sansui SP 70 two ways and the sound went from not thrilling to very nice. I have bought and seen enough beat up crappy receivers to know the difference between a worn out unit and one that may be a bit dirty but in good condition. This one appears to be a lightly used one that just sat for years without being used.
Is it super rare or valuable? Nope. Is it something that Audiophiles drool over? Nope. Is it something that a person like me that finds the more rare and unusual brands interesting? Yep. The fact that it works and cleaned up so well means that even though I bought it to listen and flip, I will just sell something else and keep this one around a while.
When I saw another Pioneer unit on here that somebody had just bought and I thought "I hope I never lose the simple pleasure I get from seeing and using the lowly vintage receiver. " Very few people in this hobby start off with a TOTL system and units like this are what have sparked many a hobbyist to a loooooong journey into a rabbit hole.
Before:
This pic shows how stupid easy to clean the pots is when the bottom is removed.
After cleaning.
Edit: I changed my power estimate to 40-45 wpc.
Last edited:
