[thirtiesradio]

thirtiesradio;

The major downside of the X-101-C is that under the chassis is very crowded. The chassis has very little vertical room since it was apparently designed to be a low profile amplifier. It makes doing very many modifications a challenge. Dave Gillespie worked wonders with this design given the limited space available. I agree that Fisher's 7591 equipped amplifiers sound great and have enough power to handle lower efficiency speakers better than the 6BQ5/7189/EL84 equipped amplifiers. However, for people with limited budgets years ago, the 6BQ5/7591/EL84 amplifiers did a decent job of reproducing the audio spectrum when paired with reasonably priced speakers of the era. My first amplifier was a Heathkit EA-3? a 12 watt mono amplifier using 6BQ5 tubes. I worked in the HS cafeteria to save up money to buy it and put it together. I was proud of the results. That was a learning experience for me as a teenager. I built a number of Heathkits and Dynakits over the years.

Have fun!

Joe

Hi Joe,
Yes the X-101-C looks crowded! I think it is Fishers best looking amplifier they ever made. Many others feel that way too as they can get very expensive. Looks like your X-101-C cleaned up great. Nothing nicer than a great looking face plate as Fishers are known to have lettering missing and damage to the finish.

The 6BQ5 heathkit amps are some of the finest sounding. It may have something to do with the simple circuits and their very good output transformers. I've had 2 of them over the years and they both surprised me.