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Welcome to my Antique Radio site. |
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Radios: Tubes: Hamfest: Books: Projects |
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Here are some pictures of my Fisher 500C: |
A Fisher 500-C sold for $369 in 1964. That seems like chump change today, but in 1964, $2368 bought you a brand spanking new Ford Mustang (the 1964 New York Auto Show was the pony car's debut). Collector-condition Mustangs now trade for between $10,000 and $15,000. A mint, low-hours 500-C rarely goes for more than $600. |
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Frequency modulation (FM) (footnote 2) was adopted for stereo broadcasting for its ability to reject spurious signals and noise—such as the sound of your vacuum cleaner, static-electric sparks, or lightning. This rejection ability, plus a wide distance between stations (200kHz vs AM's 9–10kHz) gave FM ample room for more than twice the basic audio bandwidth (20Hz–15kHz) required for stereo broadcasts without impinging on adjacent stations. | ||
Fisher used the same multiplex decoder in all its tuners and receivers. In fact, many identical parts were shared across Fisher models for cost savings and production efficiency. Today, ultra-rare units such as the Fisher FM1000 Broadcast tuner can be maintained or repaired from beaters and discarded Fisher stereo receivers. Fisher tuners were (and still are) revered for their sound, and were built to such high standards that Fisher maintained tube-based production designs well into the solid-state era. |
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Back in 1964, Avery Fisher, founder and president of the Fisher Radio Corporation, wrote a short note for the 500-C Stereophonic FM Multiplex Receiver owner's manual. In that note he said, "a door has opened for you, and your family, on virtually unlimited years of musical enjoyment." Little did he know how right he would be. Who could predict that, 40 years later, Avery Fisher's crystal ball had been spot on—that thousands of units of this American audio engineering classic would be the centerpieces of the music and fidelity pastime, of vintage audio? Forget everything you've read or imagined over the past 20 years—vintage gear does not necessarily sound rolled-off, soft and woolly, or fuzzy. This stuff is as far from windup Victrola sound as HDTV is from 1950s black-and-white TV. It is serious high-end audio, and offers a bouquet of endless multilayered soundscapes, pinpoint and holographic images, startling frequency response, and exceptional pace, rhythm, and drive. It's what we look for in our hobby, and it's been here all along. I've invested many years chasing the best cutting-edge gear our industry offers, yet I've never been more satisfied with music and audio since finding a home in yesteryear with all those dead guys with ears. Vintage audio offers something for everyone. It's an affordable entry point for those new to the audio hobby. It's ideal for second systems or modest living spaces. Best of all, it gives us gray-haired hi-fi veterans a respite from the spiraling expenses of new gear, and it can offer the intrepid audio explorer sonic performance that I feel can be comparable to that offered by modern gear.The era of vintage audio, roughly 1965 through 1970, comprised the gilded age of hi-fi and the ripe years of RCA Living Stereo and Mercury Living Presence records. This era of audio embodies the work of such names as Saul Marantz, Hermon Hosmer Scott, Rudy Bozak, James B. Lansing, Paul Klipsch, David Hafler, and Henry Kloss—dead guys with ears. These guys used the absolute best minds available to design and engineer sonic marvels that have stood the test of time as icons in a world now dominated by home theater. |
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For more information can be found at this site. |
http://www.stereophile.com/historical/605fisher/ | Peter Breuninger, June, 2005 |