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Fisher STE-C 5 Speakers

50.55.4.48
Posted on June 26, 2011 at 19:53:11
Brian McGowan
Audiophile

Posts: 1635
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: December 16, 2004






I picked up today an interesting pair of Fisher speakers,that I was able to find very little information about except that The woofer cones are a two-layer composite porous metal. Liquid nickel was "foamed" into shape, and then sealed with a 20 micron layer of aluminum.
The STEC5 was the smallest model. 8" carbon/metal cone woofer, 1 1/4" aluminum hard dome tweeter. 50 Hz - 20 kHz. 6 ohm impedance. 91 dB SPL.
Genuine bubinga veneer. 18 3/4 lbs each.
They were $250.00 new in 1980 and were Fishers top of the line bookshelf model for that year!There were other models in the series but this is the only set of bookshelf from that series of models!Has anyone here ever heard a pair?Because they are 6 dhms instead of 4 or 8 do I need to worry about which amps or recievers I hook these up to?They sure do look nice,I just hope they sond as good as they look!Brian

 

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RE: Fisher STE-C 5 Speakers, posted on June 27, 2011 at 09:37:13
Crazy Dave
Audiophile

Posts: 14371
Location: East Coast
Joined: October 4, 2001
 Hi Brian,

In 1980 the Fisher name was owned by Sanyo, and most of what they put out under the Fisher name was junk. However, at that time, everybody was trying to break into the lucrative high-end market. Sanyo put out a well regarded pre-amp, power amp and tuner then. You may have lucked out. You description indicates that the drivers are sophisticated. How do they sound?

Dave

 

RE: Fisher STE-C 5 Speakers, posted on June 27, 2011 at 10:31:20
Brian McGowan
Audiophile

Posts: 1635
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: December 16, 2004







I have not hooked them up yet as I was worried about them being 6 ohms!
I do plan on hooking them up later today after Bold Eagle(Jerry)emailed me saying not to worry to much about hooking them up because they are rated at 6 ohms!I knew these were Sanyo Fishers,but they really look like Sanyo was tring very hard to bring back respect by having a Hi end look and feel to them!They reall seem to look and feel like they were a well thought out design with no real cost cutting measure taken1 Heres some pictures from the internet of the floor models they made from the STE line of speakers from the Sanyo era. It really looks like an impressive line of speakers in my humble opinon!Brian

 

Spec sheets for the Hi End STE line of speakers!, posted on June 27, 2011 at 10:44:28
Brian McGowan
Audiophile

Posts: 1635
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: December 16, 2004
 Heres some spec sheets I found on the internet of these line of speakers!

 

The woofer cross section is interesting, posted on June 27, 2011 at 11:13:52
DFaulds
Audiophile

Posts: 616
Location: Northeast Ohio
Joined: October 19, 2000
 It appears to have a vented voice coil as well as the multi-layer cone. Of course even if the drivers are nice, their engineers still needed to be able to design a crossover to make the end result sound decent.

I would suspect that you'll need to replace a cap or two before you can pass judgement on the sound. It's unlikely that they used all film caps, although I could be wrong.

BTW, I think I've got a copy of that Fisher catalog somewhere in my basement. I picked one up by filling out one of those customer request cards in the back of either Stereo Review or Audio magazine back in the day. As I recall, they had a decent looking pre and power amp in the lineup.

 

RE: The woofer cross section is interesting, posted on June 27, 2011 at 11:32:20
Brian McGowan
Audiophile

Posts: 1635
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: December 16, 2004
 Thanks for responding to my post!As for the catalog that would be interesting to see if you could scan some better pics if you could find it!Let me know if you find it some day and would be interested in getting rid of it.Brian

 

RE: Fisher STE-C 5 Speakers, posted on June 27, 2011 at 11:52:44
Crazy Dave
Audiophile

Posts: 14371
Location: East Coast
Joined: October 4, 2001
 Hi Brian,

How heavy are the cabinets?

Dave

 

They weigh a lot more then what I thought as, posted on June 27, 2011 at 12:13:03
Brian McGowan
Audiophile

Posts: 1635
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: December 16, 2004
 Our bathroom scale claims they are 18 pounds each!Scale is pretty acurite too!Not bad for a bookshelf speaker of its size in my humble opinon! Will not be able to hook them up till later.Brian

 

RE: They weigh a lot more then what I thought as, posted on June 27, 2011 at 15:10:53
Crazy Dave
Audiophile

Posts: 14371
Location: East Coast
Joined: October 4, 2001
 That is a very good sign. Fire those bad boys up and let us know!

Dave

 

Well as for how they sound.., posted on June 28, 2011 at 12:13:31
Brian McGowan
Audiophile

Posts: 1635
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: December 16, 2004
 so far I was expecting a much better over all sound!But so far I have only tested them using the tunner on my Sony Receiver STR-DE 485
in the 2 channel mode.Now when I hooked up my Dennon DCD 1500 Cd player,things improved a lot!The sound was much more open & airy in the highs while listening to my Nat King Cole Box set but still not very good in the bass department to me!When I tried other CDs it still seemed to not have that deep or puncy bass that you would think they should have but the highs were wonderful! Later on I am going to hook them up to my Pioneer SX 737 and listen to the tunner and spin some records as well!Heck I might even hook them up to the Fisher console and hear how they sound!I guess I need to listen to them some more and on different equipment before I really judge them.Brian

 

RE: Well as for how they sound.., posted on June 29, 2011 at 10:45:15
Crazy Dave
Audiophile

Posts: 14371
Location: East Coast
Joined: October 4, 2001
 They are only 8" woofers. I would not expect to deep a base. If the highs and the midrange are good, I'd say you did good. If you really want the base, just add a subwoofer!

Dave

 

RE: Convert Fishers Into Sizzlin' Boomer Monitors, posted on June 30, 2011 at 09:48:13
FRG7SWL
Audiophile

Posts: 2109
Location: NorCali
Joined: March 26, 2003
 Brian, hopefully those vented voice coil woofs sound as smooth as Mesa's MC-90s. To pump more thump from your Fishers, try direct wiring woofs & utilize simple 12uf non-polarized crossover capacitors for tweets(auld-skool sizzle-n-boom eq). If stock wiring is thin, replace with 16 gauge. Should make nominal 6 ohm load easier to drive, & sound extremely robust via Pioneer SX-737 amplification. 73s from Sactown!!!

 

RE: Convert Fishers Into Sizzlin' Boomer Monitors, posted on June 30, 2011 at 16:15:33
Brian McGowan
Audiophile

Posts: 1635
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: December 16, 2004
 Thanks for thew advice! I just might try that!Brian

 

Did hook them up to the Pioneer and..., posted on July 3, 2011 at 20:34:54
Brian McGowan
Audiophile

Posts: 1635
Location: Wisconsin
Joined: December 16, 2004
 Wow did they sound good!I even just used some 16AWG Zip cord from our local Hardware store!Boy does it pay to listen to speakers on more then just one set up before you make a judgement as to how they sound!For an in depth detail check out my pinging Crazy Dave post.Brian

 

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