The Fisher XP66C

jkcoondog3

Active Member
Are these worth refoaming the subs. I listened to him with cracked surrounds and they sound pretty darn good to me. Very good sound imaging. I posted a thread on speakers, but no reply. If you don't have some high end high dollar gear you get no response. A bunch of rich primadonnas.
 
Not necessarily a bunch of rich primadonna's. FISHER got into the spkr end of the business kinda late (early 60's). They really didn't push them outside of their dealer network, and were kind of a niche item to go with the receivers they built.

XP-66's are late 60's. IIRC a 8" to 10" woofer with a 4" or 5" mid and a cone tweeter. Not spectacular, but voiced to go with the FISHER Gear being made at the time. They are a hell of a lot better than the garbage that came out from Sanyo/Fisher later (late 70's to now). If you like the sound, refoam them. They'll get better. While you have them open recap them too.

Larry
 
Are these worth refoaming the subs. I listened to him with cracked surrounds and they sound pretty darn good to me. Very good sound imaging.

Not familiar with the XP66 specifically, but I have some XP56 from the same series and they have doped surrounds, not foam. Maybe someone replaced the original woofers? :scratch2:

The XP66 should be a 12" 3-way. The 'c' designated a trim variation, either the veneer or the grill.

BTW I think most of those older Fishers sound pretty nice. :yes:
 
Not familiar with the XP66 specifically, but I have some XP56 from the same series and they have doped surrounds, not foam. Maybe someone replaced the original woofers? :scratch2:

The XP66 should be a 12" 3-way. The 'c' designated a trim variation, either the veneer or the grill.

BTW I think most of those older Fishers sound pretty nice. :yes:

I don't know if the XP66C have had the woofers replaced, but they are 12" and look old. The surrounds are rotten and I see some refoam kits for these selling on the web, so I'm assuming they are original. I don't know what the C is suppose to represent, but the grills have a square plastic type lattice over top of the cloth. I have a pair of XP6B's also and the sound quality of these older fishers sounds quite good. The XP66C's were probably made latter than the XP66's
 
OK, I found an original pair of XP66C woofers that have been refoamed on Ebay and are going for 60$, just the woofers, and they look exactly like the ones I have which confirms that mine are original and have foam surrounds.
 
History of Fisher's XP-66 Speakers

The original XP-66 was introduced late in the 1968 model year and continued through 1969. Significantly heavier than later versions, much of the weight difference was in the driver magnets (5 lb woofer/2 lb mid). The woofers used butyl-impregnated half-roll surrounds. Advertised specs: 30 to 19,000 Hz.; 8 ohms; 14" x 24½" x 12" deep; 40 lbs. The grill appears to be cloth.

The XP-66B came out in 1970 and ran through the 1971 model year. Its MSRP was $109.95 with the standard cloth grill. It was also available with a fretwork lattice grill as model XP-66K. The magnets were much lighter than on its predecessor (2 lb woofer/1½ lb mid). Advertised specs: 32-20,000 Hz; 8 ohms; 13 ⁹⁄₁₆" x 24½" x 12" deep; 33 lbs.

The XP-66C debuted in 1972 and ran at least through 1973, perhaps longer. Its MSRP was $129.95 and was only available with the latticework grill. Weighing the same as the "B" version, the "C", nevertheless, had magnets almost as beefy as the original (4½ lb woofer/1½ lb mid). Its advertised specs were: 32-20,000 Hz; 8 ohms; 13 ⁹⁄₁₆ x 24 ¹⁄₈" x 12" deep; 33 lbs.

I have even seen a few adds from late 1976 (prob. model year 1977) for Fisher XP-66KC speakers. These had "distinctive" lattice fretwork grills but only 10" woofers. Almost certainly Sanyo-era, they would probably not be fighting in the same weight class as the former XP-series.

(Having compiled a fairly complete chronology of Fisher's speaker offerings 1960-1973 including spec sheets, price listings, photos and illustrations; I wonder if there is enough interest in to warrant a dedicated Fisher Speakers thread. What say you?)

***I don't believe it is widely known that, prior to the Emerson buy-out, Fisher subcontracted its component speaker production to United Speaker Systems, Inc. of East Orange, NJ. United's founder, Bill Hecht (who very recently passed away - http://www.stereophile.com/content/loudspeaker-pioneer-bill-hecht-passes-89), went on to become a huge OEM supplier for many well-known audio companies. More recently he founded Phase Technology Corp. with his son, Ken. I had a brief email correspondence with Ken about United. He agreed to ask his father about the early days with Avery Fisher. Unfortunately, I never heard back from him.***

I think Fisher's XP series speakers - most of which were really produced by United Speaker Systems, Inc. - would be much more sought after if collectors knew the history behind them:


http://www.unitedspeaker.com/
 
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(Having compiled a fairly complete chronology of Fisher's speaker offerings 1960-1973 including spec sheets, price listings, photos and illustrations; I wonder if there is enough interest in to warrant a dedicated Fisher Speakers thread. What say you?)
GREAT IDEA!!!!
I think it would round out the console and separates sticky's at the top of the Forum page. If this forums had specs, price lists, photo's, etc. of most if not all of the line from the same time frame as the rest, it would stand up there with what Dr. Strangelove did on the PIONEER Forum. DEFINATELY MAKE IT A STICKY FROM THE GIT-GO!!!

Here's the back side of a 1968-69 FISHER Separates Brochure.
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Larry
 

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The original XP-66 was introduced late in the 1968 model year and continued through 1969. Significantly heavier than later versions, much of the weight difference was in the driver magnets (5 lb woofer/2 lb mid). The woofers used butyl-impregnated half-roll surrounds. Advertised specs: 30 to 19,000 Hz.; 8 ohms; 14" x 24½" x 12" deep; 40 lbs. The grill appears to be cloth.

The XP-66B came out in 1970 and ran through the 1971 model year. Its MSRP was $109.95 with the standard cloth grill. It was also available with a fretwork lattice grill as model XP-66K. The magnets were much lighter than on its predecessor (2 lb woofer/1½ lb mid). Advertised specs: 32-20,000 Hz; 8 ohms; 13 ⁹⁄₁₆" x 24½" x 12" deep; 33 lbs.

The XP-66C debuted in 1972 and ran at least through 1973, perhaps longer. Its MSRP was $129.95 and was only available with the latticework grill. Weighing the same as the "B" version, the "C", nevertheless, had magnets almost as beefy as the original (4½ lb woofer/1½ lb mid). Its advertised specs were: 32-20,000 Hz; 8 ohms; 13 ⁹⁄₁₆ x 24 ¹⁄₈" x 12" deep; 33 lbs.

I have even seen a few adds from late 1976 (prob. model year 1977) for Fisher XP-66KC speakers. These had "distinctive" lattice fretwork grills but only 10" woofers. Almost certainly Sanyo-era, they would probably not be fighting in the same weight class as the former XP-series.

(Having compiled a fairly complete chronology of Fisher's speaker offerings 1960-1973 including spec sheets, price listings, photos and illustrations; I wonder if there is enough interest in to warrant a dedicated Fisher Speakers thread. What say you?)

***I don't believe it is widely known that, prior to the Emerson buy-out, Fisher subcontracted its component speaker production to United Speaker Systems, Inc. of East Orange, NJ. United's founder, Bill Hecht (who very recently passed away - http://www.stereophile.com/content/loudspeaker-pioneer-bill-hecht-passes-89), went on to become a huge OEM supplier for many well-known audio companies. More recently he founded Phase Technology Corp. with his son, Ken. I had a brief email correspondence with Ken about United. He agreed to ask his father about the early days with Avery Fisher. Unfortunately, I never heard back from him.***

I think Fisher's XP series speakers - most of which were really produced by United Speaker Systems, Inc. - would be much more sought after if collectors knew the history behind them:


http://www.unitedspeaker.com/
That was excellent and very informative. Thank you for the hard to come buy information.
 
(Having compiled a fairly complete chronology of Fisher's speaker offerings 1960-1973 including spec sheets, price listings, photos and illustrations; I wonder if there is enough interest in to warrant a dedicated Fisher Speakers thread. What say you?)

A Sticky at the very least :thmbsp:

I think Fisher's XP series speakers - most of which were really produced by United Speaker Systems, Inc. - would be much more sought after if collectors knew the history behind them:

http://www.unitedspeaker.com/

From your mouth to someone's ears:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=476925
 
Here is a pic of the Fisher XP66C speaker cabinets after a refinish. Currently waiting for my foam surrounds I ordered from looneytune2001. These things look awesome.
 
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Hello all new to the forum trying to find current value for a pair of Fischer 66s a friend has em and offered em to me but I want to give him a fair price. Not sure if they work or how they sound, they were left behind in a house he bought. They look to be in great shape with only 1 small tear in the front screen. Any advise would be awesome. Thanks
 
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