Fisher Speakers (1 Viewer)

[BenSC]

I'm currently refinishing some old Fisher speakers I got like 10 years ago. I use them just for background music during poker games etc, just painting them black to match my living room.

Anyways, I'm thinking of trying some things with these speakers, maybe new drivers or crossover components to get a little more out of them without spending a lot of money. However, I can't find ANYTHING online about Fisher speakers other than people selling used stuff.

They are 3 way, about 2 feet tall, 12" woofer, with a flush grill. Doesn't look like I can remove the drivers without cutting the grill. I'll post some pictures when I get my digicam back. Anyways, any ideas on some affordable routes? I really like these enclosures, so I'd like to keep with them.

 

[ThomasW]

Fisher was a well known and respected audio company some 35+yrs ago. The Fisher name was later sold to some megacorp that milked the name to sell really cheap speakers until no one would buy the stuff.

Best plan is to gut the box. Start by tearing off the grill, then use a saber saw to cut out the old baffle board. Attach a new baffle to 1"x2"s that you glue/screwed to the inside perimeter of the cabinet.

If you've never built a speaker before I suggest buying a kit that's designed for the internal volume of the box.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

I had an old pair of Fisher towers back when I was in college. They were good at making noise and that's about it. I believe they used to be a pretty respectable audio company but, I think Fisher became the Aiwa of the 80's and exchanged quality for quantity.

I don't know where Fisher is now.. they've probably been bought out by someone, I'm guessing.

Anyway, I took my towers apart once to find no real crossover and the enclosures were made of 1/2" particle board.

They sounded muddy and boomy and I had considered replacing the tweeter and the midrange to try and get a little more of a brighter sound. You couldn't do worse by checking the clearance bin at www.mcmelectronics.com.

I would say, if you want to keep the existing drivers, at the very least, get a crossover in there... even a meager pre-fab one. If they're anything like mine, I think that would improve the sound greatly.

You could also try and deaden those enclosures by putting in some bracing...or even a layer of modelling clay on the inside (dynamat is too pricey to waste on a project like this). Also, some polyfill stuffing would help... moreso if they're sealed.

I ended up giving my speakers away to my in-laws (their dog had peed on them anyway. ).

 

[BenSC]

So I did some inspecting on them. First off, let me state that they don't sound good. I agree, they just make noise, I just like the enclosures. From shining a flashlight in the port, I could see that the speakers are actually attached from the back, so I can pull the back out, and get them out that way without cutting the grill (good, because if you saw them, that's the part I like, and the hardest part to fix). I'm then gona add some 3/4" MDF crossbraces.

As for drivers/crossovers, I'm not looking to spend a lot of money, I just don't want them to sound like crap anymore

The current enclosure consists of a 10" Woofer, 4" Mid, 3" Tweeter, with a volume of about 1 ft^3. Anything come to mind that would work well? Converting it to a two way and plugging the Mid hole is also an option.

Oh yea, as for speaker building experience, I've built a LOT of subs for home and car audio, so no problem with assembly. Never built a crossover, but I'm good with electronics and soldering.

 

[ColinM]

I rebuilt some Marantz speakers with parts from PE - new tweeters, woofers and the cheapest 2-way XO they sell. I didn't do anything fancy to match impedance, etc, with the XO, I just bought drivers that had similar SPL ratings and went for it.

They sound just fine, and are used in the garage with an old Technics rcvr. Glad I did it.

I'll do it again with some old Sansui cabinets I have, but I might get more involved to see how good it can be if you are careful.

Good Luck!

 

[BenSC]

Yea, I'm looking at sealing the cabinet (it currently has a 2" wide 1" long port in the back) and using a Dayton 10" woofer from PartsExpress. That should give me a -3db reading at about 50htz, and my little mini-sub crossedover at 80htz should meld in OK.

Has anyone had any experience with the Partsexpress 3 way crossover? Would be much more affordable to use one of those than to build a nice one, but I don't want something that's going to sound like mush. I already have that