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In Reply to: Fourier Components "Sans Pareil"?? posted by Ivan303 on October 21, 2004 at 14:16:16:
a Fourier Triode, the ~90 w/ch stereo version of the Panthere monoblocks. It sounded great, when it worked, which was far too infrequent. Like the Panthere, it used the 6C33 dual triode output tubes, four per channel. All of the Fourier amps were modified Futterman designs, although Tom Gambill didn't design all of them.Fourier Components was purchased by Bryan Carey sometime in the mid 90s as I recall, and prices were raised substantially - Tom Gambill, the original designer/builder/owner of Fourier who remained there, supposedly had priced the Sans Pareils initially below his cost of materials - not a very good business model :-)
Owning the Triode was a love-hate relationship because of the unreliability. One of the Binda coupling caps (1300 uF @ ~330 V) spilled its guts and was very tough to replace due to the ultra-tight spacing on the board. A piggyback solution might be necessary unless one is lucky as I was to find near replacements that would fit. It's believed the Binda high voltage electrolytic caps were salvaged from somewhere in India. Tom Gambill may the only one who knows. When Fourier closed down in early '97 soon after showing at CES a few weeks before (getting great sound with Sound Lab A-1s in a very small room), they refused to sell me any parts, saying all of their spares had gone to their dealers. There's a lot more to the story, but let's just say I gave my amp to a friend who had been, and has been, very helpful with it and other things.
There are a few people out there who have worked on Fourier amps, but they're not for the faint of heart. Schematics help. I was able to get hand drawn schematics of the Panthere/Triode from Tom while picking up my unrepaired amp at their place in the St. Louis area as they were about to close down.
Tom seemed to be a pretty nice guy with a good ear, a technician but not a business person. Parts quality was very good, while layout and build quality left something to be desired. I hope he is doing well in whatever he's doing now.
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Follow Ups
- I owned... - Brian Walsh 10:36:27 10/23/04 (0)
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