Who Knew Fisher Made a 100 WPC Integrated Amp, Tuner and Cassette Deck Combo?

August 13, 2018

#269

Gentle reader,

I have been looking for a cassette deck to add to my "office" stereo. Of course, I wanted to spend as little as possible, would prefer black and if possible have meters instead of LEDs.

You know how eBay shows comparable items below what you just looked at? Well, this:

Fisher Stereo Cassette Deck Model CR-7000 | eBay showed on one page. So I looked at it. I did not like that it was not tested and reading the seller's reason why, "..I don't have speakers..." was a red flag. But, since Fisher had made that interesting unit (it has handles!) I looked around at other Fishers. Another seller had the one above for $30.00 OBO. The shipping was reasonable and it had been fully tested. I offered him $25.00 and he accepted it.

He showed it as part of a stack, power amp on the bottom, tuner in the middle and this on the top. The photos were poorly lit and so I did not notice, and he did not disclose, that it needed to be plugged into a similar Fisher amp in order to actually work.

It arrived today but when I saw the thinness of the box, I became concerned. NO bubble wrapping of the unit. Just some space-filling air-pillows and crumpled paper to keep it from sliding around! But, Fisher's build quality and no USPS personnel having dropped it, it looked undamaged. As I removed it from the box began to look it over, I liked what I saw. That is until I saw the short power cord with a round plug with one spade terminal and one round. WTH?

AC 19 volts? Who uses that? I began researching it since the model numbers on the amp and tuner were not visible and saw some better photos on line.

Here are two photos I found of the amplifier and tuner, they are not my photos. 

FM-600 is the tuner and CA-800 is the integrated amplifier.

I have a container of "wall warts" AC transformers which I have saved from various failed electronics over many years. I label them with their voltage output and A or D for their current output. Closest I had was the one shown in the top photo. Actual unloaded output was 16.87 VAC. So, I used jumpers to the cord's plug, pressed POWER and the meters lit up. Put in a tape, pressed the various buttons, fast forward, rewind and play all worked and the meters were moving. Headphones confirmed that the speed was correct.

You can see the meters in action above.

With that confirmed, I cut the cord's plug off, leaving a few inches on it in case I decided to buy the amp and tuner in the future. Then, I stripped and soldered the two cords together, using heat-shrink tubing to keep things safe.

It has solenoid controls, the door is  supposed to power open, but does not. It seems that the removable door is sticking. At first, I thought auto-stop does not work, but it does work, just takes a couple seconds for this old deck to react. I suspect it may have light bulbs that allow one to see the meter's needles moving, but I have not opened it up. Yet. 

I go back and forth as to whether isolation feet actually DO anything to improve the sound of the music. I have tried rubber feet that I have found at work in the past. Since I did not want the receiver to have any overheating problems with the deck above it, I used a combination of two different types of feet which raise it an inch and a half. The "feet" it came with are nothing but rubber rings glued to the bottom of it.

I have owned more than a dozen cassette decks, and the JVC in the listening room is a three-head unit. If you are one that thinks cassettes are worthless, then perhaps you have not listened to a good deck. 
This one, while only two heads, is very good. It sounds amazing. Since I determined those KnuKonceptz or whatever they are called, cables are holding back some of the music, all that I had left were some of the generic thin RCA cables that they have been cranking out for decades. No complaints as to their sound. I HAD to use them with my  recreation of my original 1976 stereo that I compiled last year. The final (of four) chapter can be seen here:
FINAL CHAPTER: Reliving the 1976 sound of Dynaco PAT-5 preamplifier and SWTPC power amplifier!  Since the Dynaco PAT-5, like most components back then, had very tight spacing of their RCA terminals.

I was just looking through my ORION BLUE BOOK AUDIO 2002 to see if the cassette, amplifier or tuner are listed they are not. But there seem to be hundreds of "Systems" that Fisher made, some cost four figures in the early 1980's and since I do not know what this combination was called, I can find no more information on the three of them, except that the amplifier put out 100 WPC. 

BONUS PHOTOS! Also, not mine, of the CA-800 amplifier:

As I have been sitting here writing this, I have REALLY been enjoying how good this cassette deck sounds! A believe me, I WANT the other two parts of this combination!   

Thank you once again, for taking the time to read my humble blog. Your kind words are what keeps me cranking them out. I do not have, not want, a "smart" phone. Hip people use flip phones. That's not fake news. I certainly have digital cameras that can make HD videos, I just have never tried. Plus, there are SO many people on YouTube now, I'm afraid my efforts would be lost.

Scott
August 13, 2018
#269  

PS I just looked at a preview of this prior to publishing, I do not understand why some of the lines are black and some are grey. Does it appear that way to you? Please let me know. OH, as noted above, I only have seen my blog on my own PC. No "Devices" for this old dog.