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Vintage Fisher Tube stuff . . . audiophile or not?

brickbuster said:
When it comes to great sound it's all about great music! If you play music that is fairly simple like jazz, acoustic instrumental, easy listening vocal music, just about any stereo will sound pretty good. Now when you play heavy metal, or intense instumental racket, the sound will be muddy and distorted. I have been through a number of stereophonic gear, but when I'm done hooking everything up I always seem to grab that one record or cd that sounds really good to me to make my comparison. Then I sit back and say "MAN THAT SOUNDS GREAT"!. like it usaully does. I'v come to the conclusion that when it's all said and done it's the music and how it was recorded is the decideing factor of what sounds good or not. Thats why all audiophiles are after the jazz.
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I disagree. I don't know about all the other audiophiles, but, I love Jazz because it is a better form of music, than Pop music. It is also timeless, unlike Pop music, which can become dated.
 
I often run a recently rebuilt Fisher 400c preamp and SA-300b power amp, with a modern turntable and modern speakers, as my main system. I'm also fairly familiar with the sound of modern 'audiophile' systems. I have to say, that I often prefer my own system to them, but the difference isn't night and day. My system does NOT have a 'vintage' sound, like a lot of vintage systems I've heard. It just sounds right, to my ears. But audiophile can mean different things to different people. I like accurate timbre and a big, holographic soundstage and I get that..and plenty of it...with this setup.
 
ducati_EL34 said:
I disagree. I don't know about all the other audiophiles, but, I love Jazz because it is a better form of music, than Pop music. It is also timeless, unlike Pop music, which can become dated.
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You like jazz because it's not complicated by human voice just pure and simple instruments.
 
I don't listen to clasical much, but my 5 month old daughter sure likes the baby einstein music soundtracks and I must say they sound very good. bach,mozart,vivaldi ect....
 
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When the dial cord was working, my Fisher KM-60 was very sensitive/selective while still maintaining great sound. Plenty of bass and highs up to the FM system limits.

Is there any SS tuner more sensitive than a tube front end? :scratch2:

Regards
 
There is a reason lots of folks are buying and restoring the vintage Fisher, Pilot, Scott, Sherwood, Marantz, McIntosh, Audio Research, and countless other tube amps. When you rebuild some of the better designs with their serious quality iron, and update circuits where needed, you can suddenly find yourself in hi fi territory.

At our most recent gathering, the vintage tube gear butted a few audiophile pieces of SS amp kit to the sidelines in a shootout. Some of this gear can go razor flat 20 to 20K, have great low end, and deliver the groceries. :yes:
 
sheltie dave said:
There is a reason lots of folks are buying and restoring the vintage Fisher, Pilot, Scott, Sherwood, Marantz, McIntosh, Audio Research, and countless other tube amps. When you rebuild some of the better designs with their serious quality iron, and update circuits where needed, you can suddenly find yourself in hi fi territory.

At our most recent gathering, the vintage tube gear butted a few audiophile pieces of SS amp kit to the sidelines in a shootout. Some of this gear can go razor flat 20 to 20K, have great low end, and deliver the groceries. :yes:
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It's still working on the lap dances, though. :lmao:
 
I think yes, but for the"competitive sound" audiophile they may "win" more often with modern stuff. God help me if I ever end up there...
 
Well let's see if we would get all these part's together today, put it together by hand with point to point
wiring and sell it at today's prices at about $2000 to $4000 dollars, yep it's high end!
 
I'll likely be condemned for saying this, but I find very few pentode/UL feedback amps to qualify as "hi-end", regardless of era. The Fisher and Scott stuff sounds pleasant, but I've never kept it.

I have a Scott 355 tuner/pre, the line pre keeps up just fine, the phono section gives up a bit, tuner is great. But it too will eventually go, and I doubt I'll keep a tuner.
 
bean_counter said:
I'll likely be condemned for saying this, but I find very few pentode/UL feedback amps to qualify as "hi-end", regardless of era. The Fisher and Scott stuff sounds pleasant, but I've never kept it.

I have a Scott 355 tuner/pre, the line pre keeps up just fine, the phono section gives up a bit, tuner is great. But it too will eventually go, and I doubt I'll keep a tuner.
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We need a frame of reference for this comment.
 
The main difference I see between most modern tube amps and vintage is in more elaborate power supplies with more reservoir reserve and film cap bypass in the modern gear.
 
Jazz is an American art form and is set apart from all other types because of it's improvisation. Look at jazz charts and you'll see lots of lines of blank spaces.
 
Poultrygeist said:
Jazz is an American art form and is set apart from all other types because of it's improvisation. Look at jazz charts and you'll see lots of lines of blank spaces.
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Some Romantic period violin concertos had portions toward the end of a movement for improvisation,.
 
Pio1980 said:
The main difference I see between most modern tube amps and vintage is in more elaborate power supplies with more reservoir reserve and film cap bypass in the modern gear.
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...and extensive use of regulation and/or solid state devices to control the electronic conditions.
 
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