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Repairing a pair of Fisher XP-10 speakers--15 inch?

czach

czach

New Member
Starter question: Working on the speakers is a good place to start with this system.

I have a pair of Fisher XP-10 speakers. Pretty big, Dad bought them new in Germany, look good, 15 inch drivers are beyond shot. Opened one this evening and found that he replaced the original drivers with a Radio Shack "thing" and that foam went bad years ago.

So what's a good speaker to replace the 15 inch with? Is it worth sourcing an original speaker at this point? Or is there a better replacement?

Thanks!
 
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I would check out Parts Express. They would have the best advice on replacement woofer. Due to the age of the speakers, the crossover needs to be refreshed also.
 
Crossover absolutely needs new caps. Just a fact for this generation of Fisher.

The 15" in the xp-10 and the xp-7b are the same iirc. It's a pretty nice woofer, very soft rubber suspension. Might be able to find some, the fishers aren't as popular as they could be. Avery wasn't a huge fan of high end extension, they don't usually sparkle, but they do have a really nice full sound. I would hold out for an original if possible.
 
My XP-10’s had their tweeters replaced with EV T-350’s. They sparkle now:music: I agree with @loudnoises , I would hold out for originals if possible.
 
blademan13 said:
My XP-10’s had their tweeters replaced with EV T-350’s. They sparkle now:music: I agree with @loudnoises , I would hold out for originals if possible.
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I doubt you even need to hold out, usually if you go on Ebay and sort "15 inch woofer" by lowest price, you'll find some gefco/fisher 15" woofers towards the bottom of the stack. Otherwise you may just have luck looking up Fisher XP-10 15" woofer.

In my opinion, the woofer is the best part of the XP-10. The tweeter must be replaced because of the way the suspension ages.I put Polk SL-2000 tweeters in mine just because I had them. I find the midrange unremarkable, which is probably a good thing. Recapping them made a huge difference.
 
Sammcamos said:
I doubt you even need to hold out, usually if you go on Ebay and sort "15 inch woofer" by lowest price, you'll find some gefco/fisher 15" woofers towards the bottom of the stack. Otherwise you may just have luck looking up Fisher XP-10 15" woofer.

In my opinion, the woofer is the best part of the XP-10. The tweeter must be replaced because of the way the suspension ages.I put Polk SL-2000 tweeters in mine just because I had them. I find the midrange unremarkable, which is probably a good thing. Recapping them made a huge difference.
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There are actually some originals available right now on there. Not exactly cheap but hey if you want something you got to pay the price... I searched using the term "Fisher XP-10 15" woofer... Also got the same results by searching for "Fisher XP-10 woofer"...
 
Good data everyone, and thank you. While thinking about speakers I got a simple refoam kit and did the first speaker over the weekend. Filthy mess getting the old stuff off, and I'm not happy with how the new foam fits on the inside rim (it's probably fine and cone is centered properly) bbut speaker #1 is done and the bass is.... well it blows away my little Onkyo powered subwoofer on the Marantz (tiny) amplifier. I'm sure it will sound better with the SA1000.

Not sure what condition the midrange speaker is in, that was in a box and I'm not sure if I have to take the front of the speakers apart to get to that. Or even how one would do this. The original adjustment pots were filthy but a bit of deoxit in an applicator (spray makes a mess) cleaned them up.

I'll do the other one, order some replacement caps, and totally overhaul the crossovers. One other thing I noticed was that there was 18 gauge wire going from the crossover to the woofer. That seemed a bit tiny, so I put in 14 gauge stranded wire instead.
 
Sammcamos said:
I doubt you even need to hold out, usually if you go on Ebay and sort "15 inch woofer" by lowest price, you'll find some gefco/fisher 15" woofers towards the bottom of the stack. Otherwise you may just have luck looking up Fisher XP-10 15" woofer.

In my opinion, the woofer is the best part of the XP-10. The tweeter must be replaced because of the way the suspension ages.I put Polk SL-2000 tweeters in mine just because I had them. I find the midrange unremarkable, which is probably a good thing. Recapping them made a huge difference.
Click to expand...
Yeah the dad replaced the tweeter with a Realistic somethingorother in the early 1980's. Bigger question is how does one get to the midrange; looks to be in its own box in the box.
 
Ok, speaker #2 is under repair.With pics.

Opened it up....

PXL_20260602_140737080.jpg


Looks like the woofer is shot :-)

PXL_20260602_141255535.jpg

The tweeter was replaced, need to test it.

PXL_20260602_140906944.jpg

And now the fixing the woofer is underway. Also will be cleaning up the potentiometers with the deoxit.
 
malden said:
maybe I missed something but that doesn't look like the original woofer
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Nope. The originals died in 1982 I think, before we left NJ for sure. Maybe late 70's. Dad replaced them with the Radio Shack X10 woofer which was pretty good if I recall.

Both are now repaired and re-installed; letting the glue dry till tomorrow. Did a soft volume test and it sounds like the tweeter on the second speaker is out; could be bad caps. New caps on order will take a few days, etc.

Next big problem is finding an appropriate switch for the SA1000 input gain amplifier. One of them is broken, and the other is the usual amount of filthy. I might also replace the tweeter pots on the speakers; if anyone knows a good replacement I am all ears. The midrange pots are fine after a clean up.
 
malden said:
I bought a pair of GRS woofers to replace a pair of Advent woofers because one had a burnt voice coil and couldn't find an original to replace it. The GRS sound excellent.

Click to expand...

Wow, for $42 if these repairs don't work I'll swap those in. They have the 8 point mounts as well, which should match the cabinet.

The midrange looked ok but original on the second speaker; is it worth replacing those due to age?
 
I was going to comment and say no, keep the original midrange. I'm going to update that comment to use your ears. In mine, I kept the originals, since there's nothing about them that seems to deteriorate with age. That being said, since everything else has been replaced in these speakers, it's possible that they might not match up that well with the Realistic components. So I'd leave them for now, but see where your ears lead you.
 
Good point. They look ok (the surround stuff doesn't seem to deteriorate) and I'm waiting till I get the caps swapped out (next week) before I make any other changes.

Meantime I did fire up the SA1000 (under repair but working) after hooking the speakers up. Claire De Lune left me weeping, and Mike Oldfield's "Hergest Ridge" was beyond spectacular even at a low volume. All of the music is just.... there.
 
Continuing on, I got the new capacitors and started with the right side speaker. High frequency was out so while I was swapping in the (much smaller) newer capacitors I hooked the fluke up to the rheostats and checked resistance and possible dropouts.

The midrange one was fine (I did clean it earlier) but the tweeter one was all over the place. Something was wrong with the pot so I unsoldered it and took a look.

PXL_20260608_183841982.jpg
Note: These are "sealed" so in order to clean them you have to take them apart. Three tabs on each side from the front can be bent vertical with a good set of small pliers, only enough to get the back off.

But this one apparently was... dirty and disintegrated. That would explain why it wasn't working.

I'm ordering a new one but in the meantime I cleaned it up, got rid of the wire mess and the bits of broken rheostat, and after checking it with an ohmmeter (it can go from 0 to 13 ohms smoothly on the right side) I reconnected it temporarialy on the right side lug. Full "off" is on and it can only go halfway back but it does work.

Speakers are sounding *very good* now, does anyone know of any frequency/testing tools I could use on a computer? With a reasonable microphone I should be able to play tones and check frequency response.
 
I just hooked up my XP-10's this evening and listened to them for a bit. They are very nice speakers, and are voiced very differently (probably partially me with the Polk SL2000 tweeter) than other speakers I have and like. They seem to have a bit of an upper mid dip, which can't really be tweaked out with the mid control, and a mid treble boost. In the past when I would A/B these speakers with another set of speakers that I liked the voicing of, like the Focal Chorus 726, I would find it very off putting because each speaker just made the other seem worse sounding. For example, the Fishers would sound hollow in the upper midrange, with a more smeared image, while the Focals suffered towards upper bass and had a bit of an "in the room" sound to them, instead of finding positive things about both speakers.
 
Quick update on progress: Have switched out both sets of caps on both speakers, and replaced the wires to the woofers with 14 gauge stranded wire.

The sound quality of Tocatta en Fuge in D Minor is beyond impressive. They sound good for pop music (Sheena Easton's "Telephone" is a good reference) but truly shine like diamonds when playing instrumental music like Mike Oldfield and classical organ/piano.

Next step: Working on the 400-CX-2 pre-amplifier. It sounds perfectly fine with good stereo separation and the expansion feature works well but I should probably clean out and deoxit all of the potentiometers and check it over. It really goes well with the speakers and the amp as a set....

And maybe down the road get a one channel Fisher 80AZ amplifier and another XP-10 for a center channel.

Thank you everyone. These are pretty much ready to go!
 
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