[Skylab]

Never owned a vintage tube receiver. The Fisher is great from it's headphone out, as long as one factors in that it is a very tubey sounding amp - very nice sounding indeed, but definitely on the romantic side.

 

[ardgedee]

Setting up is far from complete, but I finally have a listening station for the first time since moving house.
 
To answer cifani090's question:
 

 
Top: Headphone boxes and some bookshelf speakers that will have to wait a couple weeks before they can be set up.
 
Adcom SLC505 in-line controller, Elekit TU-882R/AS, Cityspot T-amp, Violectric HPA-100 (Hidden by the Adcom: Teac V-550X cassette deck).
 
Harmon-Kardon HK630, HiFiMan HE-6 (Hidden by the phones: Realistic VU meter).
 
Cary XCiter DAC, (head-fier built) Corda Cross-1 crossfeed box, Heathkit AR-1500.
 
Scott 222c tubed integrated, Fisher X-202-B tubed integrated.
 
Bottom: Realistic TM-1000 tuner, Harmon-Kardon Citation IV preamp.
 
This has gotten excessive and I ought to be selling off the stuff I haven't been using. Probable candidates are the second shelf, at least one of the tubed amps, and the bottom shelf. I have to check and listen to everything first, to ensure they survived the move intact.
 
Currently only the DAC and solid state receivers are plugged in. The crossfeed box and Adcom are passive. The thing that looks like a surge suppressor over the headphones is a surge suppressor over the VU meter behind the headphones.
 
The Elekit, cross box and Heathkit have stickynote labels for their buttons and switches. The cross box was unlabeled, the Elekit's labels are inconveniently placed and hard to read, and the Heathkit's label fell off long before I acquired it. In case you were wondering.
 
The Scott has no feet, which is how I found it. The Fisher amp has all its jewels (unusual but fortunate - however, it's missing metallic caps for some of the knobs). The Fisher not only has feet, a previous owner elevated it another half inch by stacking layers of masonite between the chassis and the feet. Despite their mutt-and-jeff appearance, The Fisher's actually only a half-inch taller than the Scott. Back in the days when it was common to treat these things as permanent fixtures, it's how homeowners dealt with trying to make the equipment fit the holes they'd cut in the walls. (This is also why cabinets are somewhat rare: Some people eschewed the cabinets to save money, some were DIYing it.)
 
Incidentally, I've never heard Sextetts sound as good as through The Fisher amp. I'm not overly in love with tube warmth, and Sextetts could never be described as cold-sounding, but for whatever reason these two pieces complement each other perfectly.

 

[cifani090]

^^^ Wow, nice "portable" setup!

 

[Uri Cohen]

Have anyone have experiences using the tube Fishers, Marantzs, Scotts with LCD-2s or Grados?  
 
Vintage SS gear I can get often but I might in the future put in good money for a good tube receiver.  I'm just scared that since it's tube it may not give the cans enough drive to make them sing. 

 

[livewire]

@ardgedee, I've said it before and you prolly know that the Fisher knobs / caps are on ebay regularly. I see them all of the time.

 

[livewire]

 
Quote:

Have anyone have experiences using the tube Fishers, Marantzs, Scotts with LCD-2s or Grados?  
 
Vintage SS gear I can get often but I might in the future put in good money for a good tube receiver.  I'm just scared that since it's tube it may not give the cans enough drive to make them sing. 

FWIW, I have a tubed 1963 vintage 32wpc Sansui 1000 receiver that i use with my Grados. Sounds lovely with power to spare.
 

 

[sluker]

Anyone have experience with the Sansui 8080DB? There is one available locally for 350. Also an SX1080 but the guy wants 500, seems a bit steep.

 

[cifani090]

Quote:

Anyone have experience with the Sansui 8080DB? There is one available locally for 350. Also an SX1080 but the guy wants 500, seems a bit steep.

Wow that Pioneer IMO is very high, the 8080DB is a nice unit at $300, even better under that

 

 

[singh]

if you dont need a tuner ( that comes built in the receiver )  , i would suggest integrated.
 
i compared my Au-999 with 8080 DB , au-999 came on top .  ( though i liked the tonality of the 8080 DB  , anyone knows the integrated that sounds like 8080 DB? )
 

 

[cifani090]

Quote:

if you dont need a tuner ( that comes built in the receiver )  , i would suggest integrated.
 
i compared my Au-999 with 8080 DB , au-999 came on top .  ( though i liked the tonality of the 8080 DB  , anyone knows the integrated that sounds like 8080 DB? )

I love my AU-999 very lush, and fun amp, not as quite as musical as a Marantz, but more refined.
 

 

[Wharfrat]

Once you get into vintage receivers and their second cousins, it becomes hard to follow all the wayward children borne thereof....they even start having human-sounding names (to wit: Pionny, Sui, and Fisher, to name a few).  So I need to bring in a new name to the crowd....
 
on Audiogon, there is advertised as "the Best Sounding Headphone Amp in the World?"  (yes, its posed as a question, the devil....)...specifically, a McIntosh C-33 that is going outta the door for the asking price of $1500 clams.
  As you all know, there is a ton of McIntosh gear out there and it holds its resale value for precisely the same reason the solid-state '70s receivers and integrateds do: they are very well built and have a serious following because they sound very good.
 
Which brings to mind this: anybody have an opinion on McIntosh gear being used as headphone amps?  Now, here goes: whats it with a Preamp having a great headphone out....(which is what the C-33 is...a preamp!).   Where does it get that kind of power?

 

[wualta]

I propose a flurry of babytalk names for the major '70s Japanese brands: Pi-Pi for Pioneer, Yama-Llama for Yamaha, Mitsy-Bishy for Mitsubishi, Sui Cheeks for Sansui...
 
Preamps with gutsy power supplies can be very good at headphone amplification. What they don't normally have is the voltage swing to drive an inefficient high-impedance headphone to high SPL. But don't buy a spendy preamp to use primarily as a headphone amp-- there are more cost-effective means to that end. Buy it if you need a really good, versatile preamp (with, one hopes, a commensurately good phono stage) for your power amp.

 

[diodiel]

I just got onkyo tx866 yesterday along with a sony ps-t22 tt. Im pairing them with my sx626 and rta 8ts. So far soo good!

What do you guys think about onkyo tx8xx series?

 

[elnero]

The Pioneer SX-650 is in the house. Overall condition is about what I expected, a couple of minor scratches in the veneer and few spots that seem like they might need a touch of glue. Looking through the metal grill on the top I can see it's in need of a major cleaning inside and the controls seem like they could use some deox-it. The front panel and glass are in very good condition so overall very good for the price I paid and  with a little care I think it could be brought round to be a very nice piece.
 
I've only had a few minutes with it but my first impression is it's drier than the HK 730, it doesn't quite capture the natural tone and flow that's had the 730 captivating me since I got it. It's certainly nice though,it seems a bit more precise with a touch livelier and more detailed bass. There could be a battle brewing, the nice thing is these were both cheap enough that I wouldn't have a problem keeping both provided I find a bit better place to set them both up.

 

[tink97]

Hey everyone, I got a question.  How do the fisher receivers sound with headphones like the LCD-2 or he 500?  If anyone listens to those receivers I would appreciate any input.  Thanks all
 
tink97