Fisher MX-7000
One model number, two different machines, and only one of them is a Fisher.
Overview
There is a problem with the Fisher MX-7000, and it isn't the hardware. The number appears to have never belonged to a Fisher product at all. The verified documentation for "MX-7000" points, consistently and across multiple period sources, to a different manufacturer - Otari - and to a professional reel-to-reel master recorder, not a Fisher component. Anyone searching for a Fisher MX-7000 should know this before spending money on anything carrying that badge. The paper trail does not support the attribution.
The Otari MX-7000 is well documented. Otari's first U.S. multitrack marketing effort began in 1974 with the MX-7000 series, according to Mix (September 1980, p.11), which described the machines as "rather large" and built in both 2- and 4-track versions. A 1973 Studio Sound advertisement announced the MX-7000 as Otari's new studio recorder, available in 2- or 4-channel forms, with three tape speeds, a plug-in head assembly, electronic speed change, and a cast aluminum deck an inch thick. The same advertisement listed the stereo version at £879 and the 4-channel at £1278, prices excluding VAT, with a console available as an optional extra.
The feature list in that period copy shows what the machine was for. It had sel-sync, Cannon inputs with optional balanced or unbalanced wiring, balanced line outputs, a built-in tone oscillator at 700 Hz or 10 kHz, and a VU meter that could read input, output, or bias current. Equalization and bias controls sat on the front panel, and there was a headphone output. A later Studio Sound listing (June 1975) added front-panel EQ on record, play, and bias, FET inputs, and rugged construction. It also noted track configurations of mono, stereo, 3-channel NAB-cartridge-compatible, 4-channel on ½- or ¼-inch tape, and 8-channel on one inch. That listing claimed prices at roughly 60 percent of comparable products. That is the seller's positioning claim, not an independent verdict.
Anyone hunting parts should note that Mix (September 1980, p.11) reported information on the MX-7000 series as "a little scarce," though repair parts were said to be available at the time. Otari's line moved on to the MX-7308, an 8-track 1-inch machine introduced in August 1975 and built until October 1977. A 1975 Studio Sound advertisement described the MX-7308 as developed from the "highly successful MX-7000 Series of Broadcast Recorders" and priced it at £3690 plus VAT. None of this establishes any connection to Fisher.
The record contains no Fisher documentation for an MX-7000 - no spec sheet, no catalog entry, no review, no service literature. The brand catalog of published Fisher pages lists no MX-series model at all. Until a Fisher-badged unit surfaces with supporting documentation, the Fisher MX-7000 is an unresolved attribution, and the well-documented MX-7000 is Otari's.
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