CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Nashou66]

Hi Guys, One of my employees knows I mess around with electronics and gave me this old Fisher Receiver. I have always wanted to just mess around with an old 70's ish stereo so this seems like a good one to start with.

I cant really find much info on it. I did search and it seams this may be units sold by radio shack and renamed because it looks like a Fisher 601.





Does Curt or Maybe Mac have a schematic for this unit. Also where can i get parts for it like the missing knobs etc.

Its a real mess inside, cigarette ashes al over it and the tuner needs to be lube'd up as the dial has a hard time
moving it.


I think it will be a fun little project just to get this working fairly decent.
It sold for close to 500 dollars in the 70's


Athanasios

[Nashou66]

Just joined a quadraphonicQ forum and they had this print add posted.



How much in 2010 dollars is 598?


Now i need schematics.

Athanasios

[ecrabb]

$600 in '75 like $2350 now.

SC

[Curt Palme]

Google 'service manual' or ;schematic, and chances something will come up. Also google the unit to see what they are worth now. The Sansui 90900db that I listed on eBay yesterday night is already at $255, go figure.

Other stuff goes for pennies. I'm about to dive into the Pioneer cassette deck...

[Curt Palme]

Google 'service manual' or ;schematic, and chances something will come up. Also google the unit to see what they are worth now. The Sansui 90900db that I listed on eBay yesterday night is already at $255, go figure.

Other stuff goes for pennies. I'm about to dive into the Pioneer cassette deck...

[Nashou66]

I did google it, not much info on it and there are no Fisher 601's on E-bay for sale.

Maybe its a sought after model and not many are for sale?

Athanasios

[Curt Palme]

I'm guessing not many were sold. Anything in demand will have a collector's website or forum somewhere extolling the virtues of the unit. I've personally never seen one myself, and I've seen a fair bit of Fisher vintage stuff..

[Curt Palme]

I'm guessing not many were sold. Anything in demand will have a collector's website or forum somewhere extolling the virtues of the unit. I've personally never seen one myself, and I've seen a fair bit of Fisher vintage stuff..

[Nashou66]

Yep it definitely is an obscure unit. the Fisher 701 claims to be the worlds first 4 channel receiver, this is the cheaper model the 601 . The 701 had a wired remote
and some extra buttons. Then the top model was the 801.


here is a thread on Obscure Quadraphonic units.

http://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/showthread.php?12545-Obscure-QUADRAPHONIC-RECEIVERS-amp-AMPS....any-good

I joined and made a post. you have to be a member to see the pics.

Athanasios

[Nashou66]

Looks like i'll need one of the these if i want to decode Quadraphonic sound.



Now where the hell can i get a CD-4 Decoder? I guess it doesn't have to be Fisher brand.

Athanasios

[Nashou66]

Man this thing was dirty!

Top Side obviously will collect the dust and grime.




Underside looks bran new!!!!



The tuner knob would not turn the tuner drum( grey box on left), a little Radio Shack tuner cleaner and lubricant
loosened it up and now it turns freely.

No speaker to hook up but i had set of headphones and it was all static, a lot of the same cleaner
in the two slider volume controls eliminated it . I was surprised to be able to catch Toronto's 97.7 Hits FM station
with no antenna connected!!!

Head phone sounded really good.

Tomorrow I'll get to cleaning all boards on top section, you can see i did clean one in the top pic.

This will be fun.

Athanasios

[AnalogRocks]

97.7 is st Catherines much closer to you than Toronto. That's my favourite radio station

[AnalogRocks]

97.7 is st Catherines much closer to you than Toronto. That's my favourite radio station

[Curt Palme]

[Curt Palme]

[Nashou66]

Nashou!!!!!!!!!

[Curt Palme]

A really nicely made unit! You could probably pull the amp boards and run them through and empty dishwasher. They should clean up nicely. Not sure if I'd to it to the tuner board though.

I'm soo choked again at the modern day electronics industry. I got a service call from a restaurant with a dbx Zonecontrol installed by someone else about 3.5 years ago:

http://www.dbxpro.com/1261m/index.php

Power light on, dead in the water at 9 PM on Friday.

It took over an hour, sitting on top of an ice chest to pull out the dbx and make up bypass wiring so that I could connect their MP3 player directly to their power amps to give them music over the weekend. I open up the unit, and sure enough, electrolytic caps are leaky in the power supply, despite a fan by them to cool them off.

THe repair itself took 20 minutes, but now I have to confirm that the unit works, and it may have dumped its memory, as it's still dead. The download of the control software is not compatible with the unit as its too old, so it looks like my serial cable (null cable) is made up incorrectly, so this morning I need to make another one, just to verify operation. I also need to learn the software as I've never programmed a dbx before.

All this work to repair something that should last 15 years. Go figure. And then you're here with a 40 year old unit, covered in dust, and it powers right up.

[Curt Palme]

A really nicely made unit! You could probably pull the amp boards and run them through and empty dishwasher. They should clean up nicely. Not sure if I'd to it to the tuner board though.

I'm soo choked again at the modern day electronics industry. I got a service call from a restaurant with a dbx Zonecontrol installed by someone else about 3.5 years ago:

http://www.dbxpro.com/1261m/index.php

Power light on, dead in the water at 9 PM on Friday.

It took over an hour, sitting on top of an ice chest to pull out the dbx and make up bypass wiring so that I could connect their MP3 player directly to their power amps to give them music over the weekend. I open up the unit, and sure enough, electrolytic caps are leaky in the power supply, despite a fan by them to cool them off.

THe repair itself took 20 minutes, but now I have to confirm that the unit works, and it may have dumped its memory, as it's still dead. The download of the control software is not compatible with the unit as its too old, so it looks like my serial cable (null cable) is made up incorrectly, so this morning I need to make another one, just to verify operation. I also need to learn the software as I've never programmed a dbx before.

All this work to repair something that should last 15 years. Go figure. And then you're here with a 40 year old unit, covered in dust, and it powers right up.

[Nashou66]

I know Curt, its amazing at how well the parts are on this. No heat marks on the PCB anywhere. And all the electrolytic seem in good shape.
This thing is heavy!!!!!! and it has no mechanical Hum like some new stuff does. I'm going to have fun going through it.

I found a few CD-4 decoders i might buy on e-bay.

Curt maybe you can help me find a place that sells parts, liek the buttons and id really like a new face plate overlay.

Athanasios

[Curt Palme]

I've got no secret sources, sorry! I just picked up the knobs that were missing for my Pioneer SX1280 for $25 on eBay.. Expensive, but considering the unit is worth $600, a drop in the bucket.

You might check some vintage audio sites to see if there's a trick to bringing the existing markings to life. THere's some great info from retired techs on various forums that I've googled from time to time.

[Curt Palme]

I've got no secret sources, sorry! I just picked up the knobs that were missing for my Pioneer SX1280 for $25 on eBay.. Expensive, but considering the unit is worth $600, a drop in the bucket.

You might check some vintage audio sites to see if there's a trick to bringing the existing markings to life. THere's some great info from retired techs on various forums that I've googled from time to time.

[Nashou66]

Dug out my old Acoustic research AR-2 and hooked up my Acoustic Research suspension Turn table circa the late 60's early 70's and threw on Dexter Gordon's GO! 180 Gram Vinyl record.


Mmmm Mmmm good! nice smooth sound from the 32 watts per channel. I little hum from the phono Section.

What do I look for to help get rid of it?

Turn table is grounded to the chassis.

Athanasios

[Curt Palme]

Short out the phono inputs (the center pin to chassis) and turn up the volume. If there's hum, it's a receiver issue, either grounding or capacitors. If there's no hum, it's a cable/wiring issue in the turntable.

[Curt Palme]

Short out the phono inputs (the center pin to chassis) and turn up the volume. If there's hum, it's a receiver issue, either grounding or capacitors. If there's no hum, it's a cable/wiring issue in the turntable.

[Nashou66]

I was looking t over while you posted and think I figured it out. Its the head shell leads. When i touch the turn tables arm the hum goes away. If I try to move the very delicate leads that are twisted with the tone arm ground lead I can make the hum get really loud and then go away. I need to open up the bottom of the turn table and see what's up.

Athanasios

[Curt Palme]

Clean all connections with Caig. Headshell to tonearm, etc. I'll bet that will do it.

[Curt Palme]

Clean all connections with Caig. Headshell to tonearm, etc. I'll bet that will do it.

[Nashou66]

Ok I found the ground connector from the Connection block in the turn table not connected. when removing the Platter the weight was removed from the suspension system and it unpluged. Plugged it in and its still there.

So i did your test and hum reduces if i touch center phono pin to chassis.
if i go to put center pin near phono jack hum gets supper loud. I take it i need to clean contacts on Reciever and inside turn table.

I think they are soldered in side there. I need to pull the cartridge as well I guess as it could be there right?

Athanasios