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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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Vintage Asylum Classic gear from yesteryear; vintage audio standing the test of time. |
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In Reply to: RE: First it was another C20,then it was the Fisher 400cx posted by radioactive on February 6, 2011 at 13:59:37:
fwiw heres some of the info on the fairchild 245's that sold for $3625.
Sherman Fairchild was one of the most significant inventors of the modern era and undoubtedly one of the greatest American entrepreneurs of all time. His contributions to society are so wide spread it would be hard to see an area of technology where he wasn’t an influence. Companies such as Fairchild Aircraft, Fairchild Stratos, Fairchild Hiller, Fairchild Industries, Fairchild Camera and Instrument, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Fairchild Recording, to name a few, all were leading innovators in their respective fields. Sherman Fairchild was also a co-founder of Pan American Airlines and American Airlines as well as Director of IBM, a company his father founded.. In the 1950’s one of Fairchild’s pet projects was Fairchild Audio, which was a spinoff of Fairchild Recording. Much of the technology developed by the professional recording division was sold to consumers in the audio division. Fairchild audio products were outstanding quality, yet most were in a price range the average consumer could not afford. Nevertheless, as he did in every other area of technology, Fairchild brought a new level of excellence to the Hi-Fi industry. In 1955 the Fairchild 245 mono preamp was released and remained in production until 1959. It was the most advanced, expensive, and sonically accurate preamplifier available during the pinnacle of the golden era of audio. Its technology was derived from Fairchild’s recording/broadcast division, where they were the foremost developers of compressors, equalizers, mixing consoles, line amps, cutting lathes, and phono cartridges. The 245’s design is unique and groundbreaking, it build quality makes similar era components from McIntosh/Marantz look pedestrian. Each mono preamp has a robust power supply and cost-no-object layout. The circuit of the 245 has several distinguishing features which lend to its tremendous performance. The high-level inputs go through the first half of the dual volume control and the tone controls without any amplifying circuit intervening. The main portion of the preamp is a two-stage amplifier with overall negative feedback to provide a low output impedance and low distortion. One half of the dual volume control is at the input to this amplifier, and the other half is in the feedback loop. As a result, it is impossible to overload the preamplifier with strong signals; and, in fact, the increased negative feedback at low gain settings, as compared to maximum gain settings, slightly reduces distortion. The phono/tape preamplifier stage is a two-stage feedback amplifier using two EF86 low-noise pentodes (the first one is triode connected). These, also, can handle large input signals without overloading. The control functions of the Model 245 are conventional, consisting of bass and treble controls, an uncompensated volume control, and a single function selector, which selects ; AUX, Tuner, Phono (RIAA equalization), Phono 2 (RIAA Equalization w/ LF roll off), Hi Level Tape (NARTB 7 ½-ips Equalization), Low Level Tape (3 3.4-ips equalization). Each 245 preamp has two parallel output jacks for connection to two different amps. A nine pin accessory socket is for connection to the Fairchild model 247 Stereo Control System. Sonically the Model 245 is an amazing sounding mono preamp, and the two together makes for a truly astonishing dual-mono/stereo preamp. After auditioning them for a lengthy time I would easily call them my favorite vintage tube preamp, and I have owned them all. They have the characteristic smoothness of all the finest tube preamps, with improved detail and a lower noise floor. It handles all sources, vintage or modern, with outstanding effectiveness. The phono preamp is the finest you will find in a vintage preamp.
and here is a link to a video of them .
real radios glow in the dark...
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Follow Ups
- RE: First it was another C20,then it was the Fisher 400cx - radioactive 02/6/1114:10:01 02/6/11 (1)
- RE: First it was another C20,then it was the Fisher 400cx - Crazy Dave 09:47:10 02/7/11 (0)
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