Parallax982
Super Member
Some of you know that I recently acquired a Fisher 400, which was like a revelation once paired with my Klipschorns. My wife and I spent hours listening together on the couch, unable to pull ourselves away. Everything sounded so sweet and transparent. That was on Saturday. On Sunday night, the Fisher blew. There was a loud pop. When I finally checked the fuse, it was blown. But trying to restart it with a new fuse on a dim bulb tester revealed that something's seriously wrong, as the unit remained dead and the bulb glowed brightly.
Since then, I've dusted off every transistor receiver I have. Thought that maybe one of the cap-coupled units might at least be able to come close to the Fisher. But no. It's just not the same. Have to get the Fisher fixed. Or find another great tube receiver, integrated or maybe just a plain old amp.
It's funny because the system in our master bedroom runs on transistors and is dialed in beautifully. A recapped Marantz 2230 (yes, cap coupled) with input through a Geshelli Labs J2 DAC (AKM 4499 chipset with Sparkos opamps) feeding into Coral BX-300 speakers plus a Hsu VTX-2 subwoofer. Took a long time to figure out the master bedroom system, to bring all the pieces together and to master the subwoofer settings and the placement of speakers. But the result is so sweet. Not better or worse than the downstairs system (Fisher plus KHorns). Different. Hard to compare because the rooms are different. Both are really sweet. Both sound great, played softly or loud. There are similarities. Both are sweet and clear, with a wide sound stage (upstairs as a result of the Geshelli J2, downstairs because of the KHorns). The 2230, bringing some of the benefits of transistor gear, makes that system a bit stronger and tighter. Downstairs, with just the Fisher and the KHorns, it's not as tight or responsive but the sound stage is the widest I've ever experienced. When the Fisher was running, the transparency was beyond anything I'd experienced before too. Even before I obtained the Fisher, the KHorns running off a Marantz 2270 blew me away. That wasn't true for my wife and now it's not true for me either. Now, with the 2270, the system sounds a bit metalic and the joy is gone. I've been spoiled. With the Fisher, my wife finally understood why I'd expended all this time, money and effort to improve a system we already liked well enough. Yet even with the Fisher, I sense there's still potential to go further.
I'm sure, over time, we'll get it all figured out. First, fixing the Fisher. Then figuring out whether the Fisher or the KHorns or the room itself can be improved. Bottom line, though: It seems there's no substitute for tube gear with these KHorns. Now that I've been to the promised land, all of my transistor gear falls short. Good stuff. Marantzes. Pioneers. Sansuis. A Kenwood. An old Realistic that, in some settings, is surprisingly good. A non-vintage Denon 5.1 receiver which I usually use as a preamp but has a nice amplifier too. None of them match the Fisher in revealing the potential of these speakers.
Since then, I've dusted off every transistor receiver I have. Thought that maybe one of the cap-coupled units might at least be able to come close to the Fisher. But no. It's just not the same. Have to get the Fisher fixed. Or find another great tube receiver, integrated or maybe just a plain old amp.
It's funny because the system in our master bedroom runs on transistors and is dialed in beautifully. A recapped Marantz 2230 (yes, cap coupled) with input through a Geshelli Labs J2 DAC (AKM 4499 chipset with Sparkos opamps) feeding into Coral BX-300 speakers plus a Hsu VTX-2 subwoofer. Took a long time to figure out the master bedroom system, to bring all the pieces together and to master the subwoofer settings and the placement of speakers. But the result is so sweet. Not better or worse than the downstairs system (Fisher plus KHorns). Different. Hard to compare because the rooms are different. Both are really sweet. Both sound great, played softly or loud. There are similarities. Both are sweet and clear, with a wide sound stage (upstairs as a result of the Geshelli J2, downstairs because of the KHorns). The 2230, bringing some of the benefits of transistor gear, makes that system a bit stronger and tighter. Downstairs, with just the Fisher and the KHorns, it's not as tight or responsive but the sound stage is the widest I've ever experienced. When the Fisher was running, the transparency was beyond anything I'd experienced before too. Even before I obtained the Fisher, the KHorns running off a Marantz 2270 blew me away. That wasn't true for my wife and now it's not true for me either. Now, with the 2270, the system sounds a bit metalic and the joy is gone. I've been spoiled. With the Fisher, my wife finally understood why I'd expended all this time, money and effort to improve a system we already liked well enough. Yet even with the Fisher, I sense there's still potential to go further.
I'm sure, over time, we'll get it all figured out. First, fixing the Fisher. Then figuring out whether the Fisher or the KHorns or the room itself can be improved. Bottom line, though: It seems there's no substitute for tube gear with these KHorns. Now that I've been to the promised land, all of my transistor gear falls short. Good stuff. Marantzes. Pioneers. Sansuis. A Kenwood. An old Realistic that, in some settings, is surprisingly good. A non-vintage Denon 5.1 receiver which I usually use as a preamp but has a nice amplifier too. None of them match the Fisher in revealing the potential of these speakers.
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