Fisher Model 400 FM Stereo Receiver (1964)
If you're familiar with tube audio,
the name Fisher needs no introduction. Named after Avery Fisher,
its founder and guiding light, the company began in 1945 and produced some of
the world's best-performing and most elegantly designed high-fidelity
equipment during the 1950s and 1960s. The Model 400 FM receiver shown here
was manufactured from 1964 to 1968. Some tube enthusiasts rank
it as one of the finest FM receivers ever made.
I got this set in a trade. I had obtained a Fisher 500-C receiver some
months earlier, but it was missing its case and developed some
problems. When I got a chance to trade my non-working 500-C
for this working 400, I swapped without hesitation. Purists may
disagree on fine points, preferring one model over the other, but
to the average Joe, these receivers are basically equivalent. And I
wanted a good FM receiver for everyday use, so gaining a cabinet
was a distinct bonus.
Description
The 400 closely resembles the Fisher 500 and 800
series receivers, with a brushed metal faceplate and brass-faced
knobs. Left of the dial is the famous Fisher bird logo, with a musical note in its beak.
The wood veneer cabinet has a gold metal grille at the back,
providing extra ventilation for the audio output tubes.
(The dial glass is not cracked, as might seem from the photo;
that's only reflections.)
The front view shows the 400's straightforward
controls, with five round knobs for tuning, power/volume,
left-right balance, treble, and bass. A sixth round knob selects among several
functions: tape aux, FM mono, FM stereo with filter, FM stereo, phono stereo,
phono mono, and tape head.
Slider switches control the tape monitor, speaker on/off,
high-frequency filter, and loudness contour circuits. A stereo headphone jack
is located between the two pairs of slider switches.
The front view also shows the audio transformers, a pair of big black
items in the center, and the power transformer to the
right. All this "big iron" makes the 400 darned heavy. If you lift
the bare chassis, note that most of the weight is in the back.
Be careful not to mash the plastic tuning pulley near the chassis
edge, right where you'd naturally want to grip.
Almost every Fisher of this type has lost one or more of its little brass
knob caps, and this one was no exception (see the lower left knob). When the
glue dries out, the caps fall off. I obtained a replacement cap from a
company that advertises on eBay.
On the right side of the dial is a single "magic eye" tube that indicates
signal strength. Even though eye tubes have been largely superseded by LED
indicators, I think they're a lot of fun. You can read more about them, and
other radios of mine that use them, in my magic eye article.
In the rear view, you can see this set's many
input and output connectors.
The speaker terminal, located near the center,
lets you select 4-ohm, 8-ohm, or 16-ohm speakers. A single RCA-type jack
in the center lets you connect a single, monophonic, "center channel"
speaker. The antenna terminal appears to the left. Next to it are two
outlets for powering tape and phono equipment. To the right are six pairs
of RCA-type jacks labeled tape head, phono low, phono high, record out, tape mon,
and aux tape. Located directly above them, on the upper chassis surface, are
four more connectors (here, bridged with jumpers) for connecting a Fisher K-10
"Spacexpander" reverb system.
Also visible in the rear view are the receiver's four audio output tubes,
separated from the output transformers by a metal shield for heat protection.
The 400 uses all-glass Novar type 7868 tubes in a push-pull configuration.
The 500 and 800 series use 8-pin 7591 tubes. Both types are scarce and
expensive, running anywhere from about $20 to $50 or even more.
The under-chassis view gives you an idea of
the model 400's complexity.
Repairing one of these—particularly, aligning
its complex FM tuner—is not a job for the faint-hearted. Mine appears
comparatively untouched. The only obvious repair is that the old selenium
rectifier has been updated with a more reliable silicon bridge rectifier.
As you may have read elsewhere in this website, selenium rectifiers should
always be replaced.
Fishers of this type also used the newly-developed Nuvistors
in their patented Golden Synchrode FM front end. A Nuvistor is a miniaturized
tube in a small metal can. About the size of a pencil eraser (or an
early transistor, for that matter), Nuvistors couldn't compete with
transistors, and were soon supplanted in the marketplace. They are also
becoming somewhat hard to find, so if you have one of these sets, it's
not a bad idea to pick up a couple of spares.
(To be honest, I don't remember seeing the Nuvistors on this chassis, last
time I looked. In the place where they were located on my 500-C, the
model 400 had a single tube. Possibly they were relocated for some reason,
or perhaps my 400 is an early model that simply didn't use them.)
Restoration
This receiver did not require much work other
than cleanup. The cabinet was dull and very dirty, so I first cleaned it with
paint thinner and a soft rag, to remove all traces of old grime and
furniture polish. Next, I applied walnut-colored Minwax to even
out the color. If you let the Minwax settle in for a couple of minutes, then
wipe off with a soft rag and buff it dry, it stains any small scratches to
the original color without changing the overall color of the piece.
The gold-colored metal ventilating grille at the back had a few small
spots of surface corrosion. It's not the kind of thing that you can
polish away, so I sprayed on a coat of gold paint that perfectly
matched the original color.
The chassis also showed the usual amount of dust and grime. After cleaning
it with Fantastik household cleaner, I shined up the aluminum tube covers
and other prominent metal areas using Mother's Mag & Chrome Polish. Mother's
does a great job on aluminum and cadmium-plated parts.
After removing and cleaning the faceplate and knobs,
I also pulled out the dual dial lamps for cleaning. These lamps
are quite unusual. Looking more like fuses than pilot lamps, they
are long and slender, with a metal connector at each end. One side of
each bulb is painted white, to
reflect more light onto the dial. The bulbs are mounted so that they shine
through the ends of the dial glass, as well as slightly onto the dial
backplate. The dial lettering seems to glow against a softly lit
background, a beautiful and sophisticated effect.
These receivers have a metal bottom plate, fastened with a few sheet metal
screws. Turning the set over and removing the plate, I was then able to
spray De-Oxit into the controls to clean and lubricate them.
The power-supply rectifier, as mentioned above, had already been replaced.
Some additional modifications are recommended for optimum reliability and
performance. You can read more about them in my Fisher 800-B
article. This set is used only infrequently, so I haven't gotten around
to doing that tuneup yet.
Final Thoughts
If you're looking for a fine-sounding tube receiver, the 400 is an excellent
choice. My 800-B has more features, but it's hard to tell any difference
between them when it comes to FM listening.
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