Fisher Medalist Console:upgrades? suggestions?

Hey group, I usually hang out in the Marantz files but not all of my treasures are Marantz, actually I am writing about my Fisher tube console. Even though it is mono, it still sounds really nice and fills an entire house with smooth sounds the way it is, now I know the electronics are vintage fisher at its finest, but i have no clue as to the make of the drivers in the cabinet, they sound really clean and tight as it is, but the cabinet is in need of some restoration and I am wondering if there are any upgrades I can make to the speakers to better the sound overall that would work in this type of enclosure. And what is it that I have now, was fisher scrimping on the drivers to keep the price still afordable or are these worth leaving in place? Here are some close ups of what I have, any suggestions are appreciated, the tuner/amp is a model r-20 and I haven't found out much about how it was marketed other than it is rated at 17 watts, and it's a very robust 17 watts let me tell you, I have had it serviced and it is working great but when I restore the cabinet I would like to plexi the top over the amp and showcase the tubes, maybe you have some suggestions for upgrading power or even to replace them with those cool blue burning tubes, call me ignorant but I know nothing about tubes, mainly solid state here, I also need vintage grill cloth and a whole lot of sanding, the wife loves the sound but to be allowed into the common area of the house she needs a makeover, the Fisher not the wife, actually THAT wouldn't be a bad thing either...LOL Any help is appreciated again, I think I will post this in both the tube and speaker forums, hope to get some good ideas, info, thoughts, or even reviews of this line of Fisher consoles, thanks in advance yall, kUngdrew

oh....forgot the pics, ooops
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff24/kungdrew/fisher3.jpg
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff24/kungdrew/fisher2.jpg
http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff24/kungdrew/fisher1.jpg

Hello kUngdrew,

Those are Jensens, I believe. I took a pair of identical 3-ways out of my 1960 Fisher Premiere. The only difference I see is the crossover: mine had a large coil under the caps. Does yours appear to be the original crossover?

My Jensens sounded okay but when I hooked up the Fisher 600 in the console to a pair of mid-fi Klipsch KG-4s there was a big improvement. So, at the suggestion of a fellow AKer, I replaced the old Jensen 3-ways with a pair of full-range Audio Nirvana 10s which sound pretty good. They are much crisper sounding (and don't crackle at certain frequencies) but lack much of the charm and warmth of the the old Jensens. I need to add insulation to the speaker enclosures and possibly reduce the amount of porting which resulted from removing the existing mid and tweeter.

Incidentally, your Medalist looks quite handsome. I'd be interested in seeing a photo showing the grill cloth. There's a small flap visible in your enclosure interior photo that looks very similar to mine.

Yes the crossover appears to be the original, even the acoustic (paper mache) baffling looks brittle and ancient. My grill clothhas a tear in it and needs replaced, the front looks like it is held on by eight or so screws and all i need is the new cloth, but no clue where to get it for a resonable price. And as you can see, a whole lot of sanding and refinishing, but the plus is that it doesn't look like a veneer, it appears to be solid wood. Where did this line of consoles fit in with the rest of Fisher's line? I don;t want to diminish its value but I have entertained thoughts of a plexiglas top or cutout to display the tubes and replacing the garrard (not working and not gimbal balanced) turntable with a Dual 1218 in mono, or a cd player mounted in the cabinet in its place. Although not original, I don't see this being an overly rare piece and customizing it for my tastes is not disrespectful to it or other owners, but please feel free to comment or make any suggestion to make it simpler for me. Should I leave the baffling alone or is it a fire hazard? How can I run a stereo line (rca) into a mono input without messing up the impedance or sensitivity of the input? What can I replace the crossovers with? thanks in advance. kUngdrew Oh BTW i got this piece at a GW for $10 I spent 85 more at my service tech to solder a socket and clean it up and for a few replaced tubes, so I have less than a hundred in her, pretty good deal I suppose.

Nice looking piece, from what I can see. :thmbsp: I'm definitely not the expert here, but if it were me, I'd just upgrade the capacitors first, & see how that sounds. Caps are commonly replaced due to old age, not only in speaker crossovers, but in amps & everything else. I imagine the most you'd need to do to the drivers themselves (those look like good AlNiCo magnets, BTW), is blow the dust off them, when you have it open for a new grille cloth anyways. Good luck. EDIT: I guess I CAN see it pretty good now, ya posted more pics while I was typing.

Very cool console - well worth restoring. I especially like the sliding door! The grill cloth looks like mine. Does it have silver metallic thread in it? I wish I could tell you where to find that specific pattern - the best place I could find on line was this <http://www.grillecloth.com/pages/about.html>. No exact replacements but some with a similar look.

I just bought a 1960's lamp on eBay to set atop mine. I'll post a picture when it arrives.