Help me identify!

They look like either 1974 XP-55S'es or 1975 XP-55X'es which were 2-ways with 8" woofers and 3" tweeters. At about $140 a pair they were Fisher's best-selling speakers of that time. The "S" denoted the sculptured grill.

They were manufactured during the years when Sanyo was "helping" Emerson with production problems due to Emerson's reorganization of Fisher's production facilities. Being at the lower end of Fisher's speaker line-up, it is doubtful that they would be of the same quality as earlier XP series speakers.
 
Dimensions were given as follows:

12 1/2" W x 21" H x 9" D

What has me confused is the 3 bar grill and the different style fisher emblem.
 
Dimensions make it the XP-56-S. Early 1970's.

XP-56 walnut with cloth grill, XP-56B vinyl with cloth grill, XP-56-K walnut with fretwork grill, XP-56-S vinyl with "sculpted" grill.

Two way, 8" woofer, 3" tweeter, 35Hz-20kHz.
 
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Dimensions make it the XP-56-S. Early 1970's.

XP-56 walnut with cloth grill, XP-56B vinyl with cloth grill, XP-56-K walnut with fretwork grill, XP-56-S vinyl with "sculpted" grill.

Two way, 8" woofer, 3" tweeter, 35Hz-20kHz.

I noticed when googling the XP-56s that the sculted grills are all 4 scultped 'bars'. This one has 3 per speaker. And the emblem is different. Was that just a year change?
 
Most of the Fisher catalogs didn't necessarily show a picture of every variety, and Google search results sometimes find information posted by a person who is not always knowledgeable. And, there were certainly cosmetic changes made during the production runs. The logo did change over the years.

I have a pic of the 55 and it does have a three section grill, but it is 10x20 and only 7 1/2" deep. The 65 is 13x23x10.

The 56 is listed as 11 1/2 x 21 x 9, so that's the closest to your stated dimensions.

My other guess would be that it could be a 55 and the dimensions given are wrong. Tough to call for sure.
 
Clay, do you have Fisher literature showing that model? I sure would like a copy when you get a chance. (I know you're probably busy right now, though.) Everything I have (1968 through 1973) shows the XP-56'es as being 11½" x21" x 9" deep. Here is the page from the '73 catalog illustrating the models in question:

XP-65.jpg


I don't have any comprehensive listing of all Fisher's speaker models for the years beyond 1973, though. What I have are a few newspaper ads showing 3-paneled sculptured grills from '74 and '75. They are all for the model XP-55. All of Fisher's other sculptured grill models from this period (XP-56S, XP-65S, XP-7S, XP-9S, etc.) are illustrated as having 4-paneled sculptured grills like those above.

Looking again through the ads I have - noting the style of Fisher badge as pointed out by bhepper - I see that he is correct that all of the early 70s Fisher speakers have the rectangular style badge. Expanding the search later into the 70s I eventually came across an ad showing a 3-panel sculptured grill Fisher speaker from 1976 which also has the old-style script 'Fisher' badge. Its model number is MS-11. Google searches only revealed a Luxman speaker with that model number.

EDIT: Pardon my repetition of some of points mentioned in the last two posts. It takes me so long to compose my posts that the information is often outdated by the time I press "submit".
 
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Carter, I have that same catalog. There were no sculptured grills in 1971, and they were completely gone from the 1978 catalog. All of the pics I have show the square logo, and I know the script logo is later.

You're correct on the dimensions as I posted above. I'm beginning to think that bhepper's pic is of a late 55 and the dimensions given are wrong, especially since I have no Fisher speaker that matches those dimensions.
 
Carter, I have that same catalog. There were no sculptured grills in 1971, and they were completely gone from the 1978 catalog. All of the pics I have show the square logo, and I know the script logo is later.

You're correct on the dimensions as I posted above. I'm beginning to think that bhepper's pic is of a late 55 and the dimensions given are wrong, especially since I have no Fisher speaker that matches those dimensions.
When you get settled in at the new place and have time to dig through all the boxes labeled 'Misc. Fisher' maybe you could dig out the '78 catalog and scan it for me. That's one I don't have. Do you have '82? I found the copy Sanyo submitted to the Patent & Trademark office as a sample scanned and ready to go.

Interesting that the sculptured grills had disappeared by '78. I believe the XP-55S, XP-56S and XP-65S were the first models to offer sculptured grills in 1972. I have a price list that identifies them from that year. I believe the sculptured grills were available until at least 1976.

As to the speakers in question, I feel fairly certain they are not even from the XP series. Now I'm thinking they must be an early MS series model; almost certainly a product of the Sanyo era. That might account for their unfamiliar dimensions. What's you're take on the desirability of the Fisher speakers of this period versus the "true" XPs. I say "true" because Fisher apparently continued to produce so-called XP models sporadically until at least 1982. However, in 1982 it was the STE series that was Sanyo/Fisher's TOTL. By then XPs such as the XP-95 had been demoted to more of a mid-line model.
 
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We're not moving until next year. The next six months is "purge" time for 20 years of accumulation.

I don't really have much personal experience with the later speakers, although I'm always looking for anything from the STE or STEC lines.

The "scanning" might take a while...

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ALL that is 1978?!?! Wow. Sanyo/Fisher did offer a plethora of models, though - didn't they?
 
ALL that is 1978?!?! Wow. Sanyo/Fisher did offer a plethora of models, though - didn't they?

:D No, that's not all 1978. It's just my paper collection of manuals, etc.. Plus I have a bunch of stuff on CD I've never gone through in detail.
 
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