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Fisher X-101-C

Fisherdude

Fisherdude

Regular Dude
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Recent find. I've been patiently looking for an 101-C for several years, and finally snagged one for a more than reasonable price.

All original Fisher branded 7591's. All six original Fisher branded "Made In West Germany" diamond-base Telefunken 12AX7's. All original brass knob caps.

Just some quickie pics for Kyle.:D
 

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Very nice indeed! I also have one of these-picked mine up years ago and love it. Did minor recap and that's about it. Would like to get the cabinet for mine. So many of the Fisher gear came out of consoles, which mine most likely did also.
Enjoy!!
 
Very nice, congrats! :thmbsp: I hope "more than reasonable" doesn't mean you're on a peanut butter diet for awhile. ;)
 
That's about as nice as you will find. Beautiful chassis and faceplate. I like the access door for the controls, really slick design. Nice tube complement too! :yes: Does this one finish of the 101 integrated amp series for you?
 
Fisherdude,
You may recall that I also recently found one.
I'm glad you no longer have a reason to be jealous of mine.
Also, it's great that the unit of yours has a good looking cabinet and sounds great just as it is. You're very fortunate.
Good luck. These sure are lookers. They have the classic mid-century modern look and glorious Fisher tube sound. Plenty of 7591 muscle too! The hideaway panel is very cool.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=264093

Actually, I'm now jealous of you.
I've recently let mine run for a day and I'm not as fortunate as you servicewise with my X-101-C, though it cleaned up fabulously. When finished it will be a lifetime keeper. The sound is fine and will only improve. It didn't get particularly hot either.

I'm preparing to put new coupling caps in mine. I've happened into a bunch of Jensen Copper Foil PIOs with silver leads. But I believe I'll wait until I take care of some ills before putting the couplers in.

Here's the list of ills:
1. Power supply transformer hums - an oscillation hum that doesn't go into the speakers - I have a 500-C PSU and I need to compare the numbers, but I suspect I won't get lucky. I had this happen on a 400 and tightening, isolators, or other attempted oscillation dampers just didn't fix it. Replacing the transformer with one from another 400 fixed it.
2. The volume pot is unbalanced at low volumes. I have to play with the balance and volume knobs. After about the 9:00 setting on an analog clock it's fine.
3. When I go to shut it off, the right channel gets loud. Someone I trust suggested that the wiper may actually go past minimum and back onto maximum when it switches off. The sound dissipates as the charge drains off at shutoff. It doesn't happen when I unplug it.
Has anyone repaired one of these wipers?

Can you take a picture under the chassis? I can't find C31 on mine. It's listed as a molded .01uf 600V cap. I'm wondering if it's missing. It should be near the diodes.

So, I may be in the market for an untested unit. One never knows.
 
Kyle, I'm pretty much complete on the receivers, but I'm just getting started on the amps.

Don, I'll try to take a pic of the underside for you in the next few days.
 
Fisherdude said:
I'm pretty much complete on the receivers, but I'm just getting started on the amps.
Click to expand...

How does this amp compare to the 7591 based receivers in the sound arena? Does the integrated use the same iron as say, the 500C? Good luck acquiring the X-1000! :D
 
Fisherdude said:
Recent find. I've been patiently looking for an 101-C for several years, and finally snagged one for a more than reasonable price.

All original Fisher branded 7591's. All six original Fisher branded "Made In West Germany" diamond-base Telefunken 12AX7's. All original brass knob caps.

Just some quickie pics for Kyle.:D
Click to expand...

Very, very nice. What are the differences between the 101-B and 101-C? I don't see a tube rectifier in the C. What a classy looking amp!
 
I find the integrateds to have a simpler, more direct, and less circuitry oriented topology. The exception to that are integrateds with center channel circuitry, of which there are many. Some purists yank out the center channel circuitry.
I found the X-200 (the factory made version of the KX-200) to be better sonically than my 500-C. Its quicker with the transients, has more muscle, and has faster decay. Is it a lot? No. Is it enough to explore the integrateds? Well, that's up to you. It was for me. It's a shades of gray difference though. Like using boutique caps, you've got to have top quality gear upstream and downstream of the integrated or receiver to tell the difference.

I do like the smaller form-factor of the integrateds though.
 
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Well, considering I've done nothing with it yet, it's not quite as punchy as a 500C/800C. We'll have another opinion after the usual work.

Don, C31 is really interesting. I've attached a pic, but here's the head-scratcher.

Mine is a 12,000 serial number, and I have the correct Fisher service manual. The parts list does NOT list any C31, and the schematic shows nothing near the diodes. However, my unit most definitely DOES have a .01 ufd mylar cap between the two diodes and ground. See the pic. Mine appears to be completely untouched under the chassis.

Weird.

Oh, btw, I have a KX100, and it's one of my most favorite integrateds, ever.
 

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Fisherdude,
We are heading into one of Fisher's gray areas.
These caps are also often found on receivers and again are not listed on the schematics. On 400s and 500s you see the black and yellow ones like the one in your picture (are those bumblebees?) and other times you'll see one with a ceramic body and yellow ends. I've bought two "untested" receivers that had these ones with the ceramic body blown out the end and the receiver didn't work.
The configuration on the receivers is to have one at the midpoint of the two diodes, say around 220Vdc to ground and another one from that same midpoint to the high point of the diodes, the 440Vdc output. I figure they were put there for filtering. In mine, the cap isn't there, as shown in the thumbnail. Now it looks like yours goes from the intersection of CR1 and CR2 (the 440Vdc rail) to ground. On the schematic, if you draw this cap in parallel with CR2, and also going to ground, you'll have it.

My serial number is not particularly legible, but I think it's in the 21,000 range.

I don't have an owner's manual or instructions on how to use the bias pot. If you do, can you PM me so we can work out an arrangement to get me a copy?

I've also made an interesting discovery about the transformers on these 7591 output based integrateds. I'll start another thread on that. I believe that it relates to the punchiness aspect of this amp. I had been hesitant to say too much about my impressions on it since I hadn't listened to it critically at all.

Our picture orientation is backwards from one another, but the pictures are of the same position.
 

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