Series 50-H Enclosure (Fisher 50 horn)

[grindstone]

All -

Been sporadically hunting for a '53-'55-ish standalone cab (quite unhelpfully also a "series 50"). Specifically, any details of the guts. My theory is that it's quite close to the Gately Purist backhorn design (already familiar) and offered for DIY use with the coaxes of the day. It's clearly different, though, in having reduced mouth size (termini)--not to menion being lovely as furniture in keeping with the brand. I don't think it's a mini-imperial because the Allied verbiage tracks what Gately wrote and Gately was in NJ and publishing and at the shows, etc. too. Can't claim exhaustive search, but I've picked at it for years and only ever seen it in ads at Allied or a couple ads in the June '54 High-Fidelity. There's one parenthetical manufacturer reference claming satisfactory results for a particular triple cone driver (Bakers 300-K) in Hi-Fi mag, too, but that's about it. I'd be grateful for anything anyone can share. Thanks.

 

[Nyjblbob]

Thanks for sharing that grindstone.
Who knew? would be cool to snag a pair
Should go well with my Fisher 55a's.

 

[OldHi-Fi]

Hi,

I saw your post inquiring about the 50-H cabinets and I thought I’d share. I had been looking for a nice pair of cabinets for my 604c drivers when a good friend of mine told me he had a pair of 50-H cabs for sale.

Like you, I had only ever seen them mentioned in early hi-fi magazine ads. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. When he got them they had a mismatched pair of coax, one Stephens Tru-Sonic 206ax and the other a mid-tier Jensen.

Considered their age they are both in remarkable condition with only a few marks and scratches from handling.

Remarkably, 2 days after I brought them home, I came across an ebay listing for a full set of original paperwork for the 50-H, this includes sales documents, owners manual and plans for a 12in adapter. They were perfectly preserved and it all just felt so serendipitous.

If you are interested, I would be happy to share full resolution scans of all the paperwork and pictures of the inside of the cabs.

As far as performance, they are absolutely fantastic sounding. They vastly improved the LF performance of the 604c, which has a rolled edge cone. This earlier cone surround, in my experience, has better mid-bass speed/detail than the later iterations of the 604 but doesn’t extend down to modern standards.

The accordion surround digs lower but is a bit less articulate. The horn loading via the 50-H has been a very welcome improvement and the improved bass efficiency helps it keep up with the compression driver quite nicely.

 

[Nyjblbob]

Fisher 50-a cabinets. Other than your previous post and Pics,
I never heard anything about them.
They are strikingly like my JBL C-34 clone cabinets.
Do you have the exact OS dimensions?.
My cabs are too small for My 604's.
Especially the very deep Alnico structure.
The JBL's were designed with Very shallow magnets IE 130 a's.
bobhorn
Oh I saw the size on one of the downloads only 37"x 25"x20 1/4" deep
Much less depth than the c34's

 

[OldHi-Fi]

Fisher 50-a cabinets. Other than your previous post and Pics,
I never heard anything about them.
They are strikingly like my JBL C-34 clone cabinets.
Do you have the exact OS dimensions?.
My cabs are too small for My 604's.
Especially the very deep Alnico structure.
The JBL's were designed with Very shallow magnets IE 130 a's.
bobhorn
Oh I saw the size on one of the downloads only 37"x 25"x20 1/4" deep
Much less depth than the c34's

They are quite similar in dimension to the C34 and utilize a backloaded horn as well. The 50-H is about 2in wider and the C34 is aprox 2 inches deeper.



The 50-H has a bit more internal volume as the C34 are corner backs vs the flat back of the 50-H. The beginning of the horn mouth also begins a bit further back than the C34 and is removable for driver installation. This allows them to fit deeper drivers such as the 604 and the Jensen G-610 triaxial.



A unique feature of this cabinet is that the horn is split in 3 directions with the use of a pyramid shaped design at the exit.

 

[grindstone]

My face hurts from smiling -- thank you @OldHi-Fi -- thought I'd never see one. Outstanding. So it is a Gately Purist under the hood, slightly-massaged (and of course completely fine furniture packaged). I haven't read a word of the docs yet but I see you still logged-in and wanted to express gratitude. Made my day. Month, really--and it's the 2nd

 

[grindstone]

@OldHi-Fi I'd love a peek at the text under that warranty card on page 3 if it's possible sometime

 

[OldHi-Fi]

My face hurts from smiling -- thank you @OldHi-Fi -- thought I'd never see one. Outstanding. So it is a Gately Purist under the hood, slightly-massaged (and of course completely fine furniture packaged). I haven't read a word of the docs yet but I see you still logged-in and wanted to express gratitude. Made my day. Month, really--and it's the 2nd

Hey @grindstone, you’re very welcome. Your post had consolidated the most info I’d seen on the 50-H until I came across the original paperwork, so I knew I had to follow up with you!

You’re also the only person that has referenced the lineage back to Gately Purist. It does make sense that Fisher would have licensed the design in order to quickly provide a full suite of hi-fi offerings when marketing the original “50 Series.” Speaking of, here is the rest of my set minus a 50-R tuner.

 

[OldHi-Fi]

@OldHi-Fi I'd love a peek at the text under that warranty card on page 3 if it's possible sometime

Here’s a link to the full resolution docs.

50-H Scan

 

[grindstone]

Thank you for the peek under the card--good stuff!

Woooo. Beautiful gear. The 50H have found the right home--thank you again!

And yeah the Purist is 36+2" riser (38) x 28 x 18. Purist plans also appeared (with Karlson plans!) in an Australian Mullard doc called Notes on High Quality Sound. A non-trivial amount of text was encouraging experimentation with lining/damping by resistive material means and being dependent on driver cone stiffness. (Then-again, there was much discussion in the 50's). There was also an approximation of the Purist (w/o mention of origin) in one of the Babani books. I hadn't found a single type of any of them that have survived--until yours. Hopefully they keep some smiles on you as well! Thanks.