Questions about my Fisher RS-2015

[DrewB67]

Hello Audiokarma! I am a new member here but have been silently sifting through the forums for many months now trying to learn as much as possible about this new addiction I have for vintage electronics. This addiction started when I stumbled across a pair of Cornwall II's for a ridiculously low price. Since then I have been looking for a suitable receiver from the same time period to power these beasts. I picked up a Fisher RS-2015 this week for $40.00 (I hope I didn't overpay). I listened to it before I bought it and it sounded great on both channels. I got it home and hooked it up and now I only get audio from the right channel. I admit, I am not an electronics repair guru but I know enough to follow directions and how to search for problems. I have tested all the fuses, speaker connections, and channels but have learned nothing else that would lead me to a diagnosis and that has left me looking for help. Any ideas on where I should look next? The receiver is clean on the inside, just a small amount of dust and a cob web or two. Everything seems intact except for the mount to the antenna on the back being broken, the gauges on the front not working and the missing knobs and feet (I am currently searching for the correct replacements if anyone knows where I can get some).

I would greatly appreciate any help, advice or wisdom that AK members could share with me to help me diagnose this problem. I will post a few pictures but if any info or other photos are needed just let me know.

Also, does any one have a PDF of the owners manual and service manual?

 

[cademan]

Welcome my friend! Did you say all the fuses were ok? Wiggle all of the switches, especially the loudness, tape monitor and tone in/out (if it has one) switches.

A lot of channel drop-outs can be contributed to dirty switches and contacts. Try that first and report back! Good luck! Nice piece of gear you have there!

EDIT: Push the push button type switches in & out several times and see if the bum channel pops in or out. If so, YEP, dirty switches.

De-ox or something similar will clean those switches right up!

 

[day67]

I'm not a tech, but am a Fisher Fan RS 1080 -- glad to see another AKer diving in! I don't know about the value issue you raise but if you take the price of the speakers alone it more than compensates for the price of the Fisher.

Good advice from cademan. It's a common mistake when delving into this hobby that you (I) look past the most basic "fixes" thinking it's something much worse. All those switches, knobs and buttons are meeting places and junctions where the signal/power has to pass. Clean, deoxit, work the suckers rigorously BEFORE anything else...ah, yes, check/cleanthe fuses too. Let us know!

 

[Fletch]

Very nice find. I was lucky enough to pick up a RS-2003 today from a freecycle member - a good resource for this hobby. cademan is right, probably need a little deoxit on the pots switches. Good luck.

 

[KingBubba]

What a gorgeous layout. That thing must be a breeze to recap and work on. As far as cleaning the switches etc., look up the sticky in the DIY forum, I think. That will tell how to use Deoxit. It is a worthy read. Chance are that dirty switches are your issue.

 

[cbottorff]

> I picked up a Fisher RS-2015 this week for $40.00 (I hope I didn't overpay).

No, you didn't over pay. You've scored a sweet deal for 150 watts RMS a channel. How many receivers have you ever seen that have massive heat sinks all the way across the back like the RS-2015 does? An instant sign of a high power receiver for sure.

> I got it home and hooked it up and now I only get audio from the right channel.

I've snafu'd myself more than once with the balance control all the way over on side on a couple of units and I didn't notice while I went hunting my "operator error" in some other more technical way. Double check and center the balance control as well just to be sure.

In addition to all the other very helpful suggestions proffered previously herein by others, have you checked the pre-out / main-in amplifier jumper links marked here in yellow? I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned as well.

These RCA jacks and jumpers are a common sore spot for random intermittent failures in many integrated amplifiers and receivers. I have a Realistic STA-2100D that someone long ago has soldered it's pre-out / main-in links internally together to solve this reliability problem. In some extremely rare cases I've seen units provide a double pole double throw switch that bridges these jacks right next to said jacks, apparently in an effort to avoid the reliability problems and lost jumpers which is another common problem.

> I have tested all the fuses.

And... If the pre-out / main-in links turn out to be good and all of the other options mentioned previously herein have also turned up nothing... Are you double sure all four of these fuses on the power supply board marked below in yellow are good?

Fisher provided independent DC mains fusing for each channel of their power amplifiers in most of their higher power receivers, with the RS-2007 and RS-2010 being the exception to this rule, which both have common DC mains fusing. Be extremely careful when measuring the DC voltages here as there are potentially lethal high DC voltages present. In my case on channel of my RS-2015 pictured in the second picture is blown and I have removed the blown fuses for that channel.

Let us know how you fare with this won't you?

 

[Dave07997S]

Bringing this thread back from the dead. There is a fully serviced RS-2015 for sale on Ebay for $2k.