tell me about my new fisher 450T receiver

ke4mcl

ke4mcl

Super Member
i went out with a "im gonna find me a piece of early unstable transistor gear today" mentality and sure enough, found me a late 60's fisher for $10!

so what can you guys tell me about the 450T? output power? known common problems?

it looks like this has some form of auto tune system in it. is that whats over on the right? an fm search feature?

thanks!
 
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I have one sitting in a corner someplace in the basement dead. Worked good but, had a tendency (along with the 600T & 440T) to deliver this clicking noise while idling on the left channel.

I would suggest you build some kind of protection circuitry for they are prone to having their TO-3’s go into thermal runaway and dropping DC into your speakers.

That is how my 450T, 440T and, 600T died.

Wattage is 50 at best per channel in an 8-ohm load. I would not suggest you using it in a 4-ohm load.

On a brighter note, it does offer a good power supply (just remember to upgrade the caps), which the power transformer never became hot.

The power supply by itself is worth more than $10.00

Best Regards,
 
Take a look inside! It may have a motor that is used for that type of auto tuning. One of my Magnavox astro-sonic consoles has a squelch and a motor for automatic tuning.

EDIT: Looking at it again, it may be a totally different set-up as I see the FM frequencies right on the meter itself!
 
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Perusal of 1965 and 1968 Allied and 1969 and 1970 Lafayette catalogs don't turn up this particular model. The latter two catalogs have a Fisher 250-T which is somewhat (cosmetically) similar. The 70 LRE catalog has a 400T and 500TX as well.

I can post scans of these if they're of any interest at all.

Based on the cosmetics, I think 1969-70 timeframe is ballpark for the 450T.

The electronic tuning uses (most likely) a "Varactor" ("variable reactance" diode) for truly electronic (as opposed to mechanical) tuning.
 
It's in the 1971 Fisher Catalog.

It is indeed varactor tuning. There is a circuit section that varies the reverse bias voltage which causes the varactor's capacitance to change, thus changing the tuning. The AutoScan circuit generates this voltage.

55 watts RMS per channel. Freq response of the Aux input: 20 Hz - 25 kHz, +/- 2 db! A very nice receiver, second only to the (at that time) totl 500TX.
 
Not even mentioned in the 1973 catalog, so it had a very short run. Even all of the cosmetics were completely different by 73. Keep in mind, these dates are by no means directly linked to a calendar year. They're more like auto model years. They came out early, and new models were being released all the time. Plus, old inventory was sold until it was depleted.
 
this is made in USA. im gonna try to save it as i dont have any early transistor american stereos in the stable.
 
My 500TX, same era, is marked Fisher Radio Corporation, New York. Sanyo-built models are usually marked Chatsworth, CA. The 450T might be from the Emerson period, but I don't think it's Sanyo.
 
ke4mcl said:
this is made in USA. im gonna try to save it as i dont have any early transistor american stereos in the stable.
Click to expand...

Fisherdude said:
My 500TX, same era, is marked Fisher Radio Corporation, New York. Sanyo-built models are usually marked Chatsworth, CA. The 450T might be from the Emerson period, but I don't think it's Sanyo.
Click to expand...

You folks misunderstood me... I was sure the 450T was American made; I was just positing that the short lifespan of the 450T (71 to 73 or less) may have been related to change in ownership of the Fisher name.
 
Ah-ha. Very well could be. The change in cosmetics was dramatic, which could certainly point to a new design/marketing team.
 
The Fisher 450T is a divison of Fisher Radio New York. The Patent number is
3290443.

I just checked my old dead model.

Sanyo came into play with Fisher in the late 80's early 90's. The whole T Series was just a bad batch that Fisher did not want to be known for.

Best Regards,
 
ke4mcl said:
this is made in USA. im gonna try to save it as i dont have any early transistor american stereos in the stable.
Click to expand...

Does this mean I have to keep the 200-T "70 Watts" sticker still on the dial glass? Early transistor unit with about 20 rms wpc. There is one shown in this thread: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=129989

Old Fisher transistor equipment. May not sound the best but mine works well and it may be here for a while.
 
The design was excellent given the technology of the times. Well worth a recap and tryout. During this period most tend to discount the US manufacurers while bowing to the Japanese produced units. Like the children who did not want to drive their parent's Buicks the younger generation of that period turned their backs on the US companies. Those youngsters are now todays collectors and as a result the units are still shunned and under the radar but, times are changing and slowly they are gaining the interest of some.

The tuners in the series is neat, having varactor tuning and the first non-mechanical preset tuning. This concept was not again brought back until the days of the digital tuners.
 
FYI: Fisher was sold in 1971 to Emerson Electric Company (of ceiling fan fame). This was one of the transition era models from the original Fisher Radio and Emerson Electric era. Well made. Don't use 4 ohm speakers with one. They don't like low impedance loads. This was higher end than my first receiver, a Fisher 201 from 1971. When working, a fine performer. AM and FM tuner sections superb in that good old classic era Fisher way.
 
taking to work with me tomorrow to start on it. im fortunate enough to have a job where i can work on my own stuff on their workbench when nothing is going on. the vendor i got it from had the thing plugged in but when i got it home i noticed the volume knob was wide open. i suspect blown outputs at bare minimum.
 
I started working on a 450T that I dragged home from a town clean-up several years ago. It seems to have two problems: 1. the "search" function scans but never finds anything (trivial), and 2. the left channel amp is broken up (critical). I don't have a schematic or parts list, but there is a Motorola device on the amp board that, when sprayed with "cooler" causes the left side signal to drop out completely for a few seconds. It has the markings "936" and "01051-1". The same device on the other side can be chilled with no problem. An image of the "device" can be seen in the center of the image at <http://public.fotki.com/mikesloane/old-electronics-and/fisher450tbadic.html> When using headphones, the sound is perfect in both channels. Any thoughts would be appreciated, as this seems to be a very nice old boat anchor. Thanks, Mike
 
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