FISHER all-tube receivers from 1961-66 are cheap and sound wonderful!

If I'm within about two feet of my "new to me" Fisher 400 I can hear a very soft, faint whirring / humming noise.

If I put my ear over top of the unit, the noise appears to emanate from the general area where the IF and Tone and Voltage are (V4, V5, V6, V11, V10).

The faint noise doesn't appear to come from the output transformers.

Audio output from speakers and/or headphones are dead quiet. In other words, the audio output sounds wonderful -- with no humming noise at all.

So is the faint whirring hum noise emanating from the top of the receiver (audible if you put ear above the unit or are within a couple of feet) normal for the 400 and similar Fisher tube receivers of this era?

Or is the faint noise indicative of a known issue/problem that I need to have serviced?

 

With all do respect to are host , A friend of mine has been collecting Fisher gear and a bunch of other classic stuff for as long as I can remember and often tells me the Fisher gear that used to be fairly cheap to purchase is going up and getting harder to find . He also claimed the price to get this aging gear rebuilt and working well is getting crazy and the work is not always done competently . Which means most of his gear is on static display only .

 

As far as I am concerned if you have to pay someone else to work on this stuff this is not an economic choice vis-a-vis new equipment.

 

Does anyone notice the balance shifts to one side when when the volume control is at a lower volume setting? Is that a common issue?

 

It is on several other similar pieces of equipment and is due to the ganged pots not being perfectly the same resistance at any angle of rotation.

 

Not necessarily true if you get the right person to work on it. I have no more than $650 invested in my 400, including the restoration services, and I expect it to be trouble-free for at least the next decade, if not longer.

 

They are still easy to find, but prices are definitely climbing. You do need to carefully choose who you hire to work on them though.

 

Usually, when a piece of tube equipment has been out of service a while, you bring it up, change out the lytics, etc., and it works, but then something gives out in a while, and then it's something else and something else. It's like driving old cars. Most people get to some point where the labor bills and frustration exceed the fun quotient and bail.

Besides, working on them is half the fun. If it was really "all about the music" we'd all just go to Best Buy, which is where most of the real music nuts buy all their stuff.

 

Yes, that sometimes happens with old stuff.

My '62 VM 1448 has been giving me no trouble for the past 15 years, and my Fisher has also been going strong. My '63 Fender Bandmaster guitar amp has also been problem-free for years, despite being pushed pretty hard at gigs.

It sounds like you've had some negative experiences with vintage tube gear, but it isn't always as you've described it.

 

I work on old tube radios and test equipment all the time. I like doing it. If you use the stuff you are always working on it.

Sooner or later it gets to whare it just runs for a long time, but it always takes a while. If I had to pay someone to do this I'd be homeless.

 

Exactly . You may get trouble free use for many years or you may have constant grief and look for a new hobby .

 

I find that old hifi with moving parts - ie: turntables - tend to be extremely problematic, especially automatic turntables. I went through about five Dual 1019's, and every one was a PITA.

 

+1 on old tube gtr amps.....I'm hoping tube hifi is a similar situation!!

 

It seems to me that there shouldn't be much difference regarding reliability, except the circuitry on the hifi amps will possibly be more complex. But I'm no expert on the inner workings of such things.

 

Is there any way to fix the potentiometer so the balance stays even at any angle of rotation?

 

Agreed! I have a pair of Klipsch Fortes with my 800c....hardly need to turn up the volume very much, they are so efficient.

 

That's where people like Bill Neumann at fixmydual.com come in handy. I've bought three refurbished Duals from Bill over the years ( 701, 1229Q,1019 ) and it's like getting a new turntable that will give you years of enjoyment. You can also send that yard sale or Craigslist Dual to Bill and a get a perfectly working Dual back.

 

Bill was given the opportunity to service two of my 1019's for me, and both times I had to immediately send them back because his work was not thorough or complete. Neither table ever did run quite right, and all had a high level of rumble too.

I have other reasons for dissatisfaction with his service, which I won't go into here, but suffice it to say that I didn't feel like he was being straight with me.

(I fully expect to get a bunch of responses insisting that Bill's work is stellar, he's a great guy, etc., but that hasn't been my experience.)

 

Sorry to hear that.

 

You build it into the cost of ownership. If I pay for a vintage piece, it's a given that it's going to be restored and there is a price for that. But I typically only buy from folks I know will do competent and work and stand behind it. I have no desire to learn how to work on this stuff. My life is too busy as it is and my energy goes elsewhere at this point of my life. But I love the looks and sound of the stuff that I own, and so I get great enjoyment from it. Everything can go bad at some point, but my experience has been that stuff like companies from Fisher, Eico, Scott, Heathkit, Pilot, etc were built like tanks and once restored competently will work for years trouble free.

 

There are two pots and unless they are truly identical in every place they can never perfectly track at all settings.

Overall balance could be improved if it were possible to make the two pots so that each could be at a slightly different angle relative to the centershaft, which would be mechanically doable but expensive. Pots, in quantity are quite cheap. That's why they are used instead of stepped attenuators.

 

With all due respect I think you were one of the very few who have experienced this, and given that Bill is one of a very few who has done great work for many with Dual tables, including myself, maybe it would be better to take your issues offline. Or at least be more specific as to what the issues were so people can address them with Bill when they talk with him. My experience with Bill was nothing but positive, and while I don't doubt that your's wasn't, there's always 2 sides to every story. Since Bill doesn't seem to post here like he does on Audiokarma he has no way of defending himself.

 

See, I said that someone would say I am off base!

I was willing to give Bill the benefit of the doubt after my first bad experience, but after two bad experiences, my assessment was reinforced. But I do acknowledge that most seem to have had positive experiences; I can only comment on what I have seen.

If anyone wants my full story, they are welcome to contact me via PM.

 

So do all 400s, 500s and 800s experience this issue?

 

Both my Fisher 400 and Voice of Music 1448 have unbalanced output at low levels, but even out when cranked a bit.