Fischer Audio Anthaeus: grand repair

Dear high-end enthusiasts,
First off, I would like to apologise for using English in this thread. I don't speak German well enough to be able to have a conversation, although I can certainly use Google Translate to read German if you use it. I don't want to insult you by using it for writing in German, so I will write in English. Please bear with me if you can.

I would like to take use this opportunity to create a thread about the famous and rare speaker Fischer Audio Anthaeus.



I first learned about the Anthaeus existence in 2006 when a pair was for sale on eBay. I couldn't afford them back then and they became my dream speaker. In the next 9 years, they almost never occured on the market: I register four (4) pairs advertised for sale between 2007 and today. I have purchased that fourth pair from Germany and brought them home to the Czech Republic. I believe they are the only pair in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (nobody knows them here) and I dare say that even about Poland and Hungary.

As can be expected, there is a number of problems with them as they are ~25 years old. Mostly, it's the electronics that are faulty. I have the Anthaeus Aktiv Turbo version with 8 power amplifiers per channel (2 + 2 bridged for the woofers). There is a gentleman on this forum who has the Anthaeus Aktiv with 6 woofers per channel. He is also experiencing issues with his pair, although of different kind.

My problems are purely sonical: they sound quite bad, to be honest. The sound is scattered, chaotic, non-balanced and aggressive with thundering, booming bass on a handful of frequencies only. Besides the bad sound in general, I also have issues with individual drivers turning off and on again randomly during music - there are numerous Wackelkontakten in the speakers. When I play piano, both bottom mid-bass planars and both midranges produce crackling noises on top of the music. The bottom planars are silent half the time. The right tweeter also turns off iregularly. Also, the woofers have new Basssicken installed by the previous owner. Rubber Sicken instead of polyurethane, from the top of the membrane instead of the bottom. It's a mess.

I have decided to fully repair and restore this pair of Anthaeus to its proper functionality.

In order to do that, during the past month, I have been communicating with various authorities such as Walter Fuchs, Axel Schäffer (SAC), Roland Gauder (Isophon) and more and they gave me bits of information that will hopefully help me in achieving my goal. Thank you gentlemen!

Yet, a lot of information is still missing. I would like to call out all Anthaeus/Cantabile owners, ex-owners and fans to help me gather as much technical information as possible. To give you an example on what I still don't know:
- What Basssicken should be used when the original ones disintegrate? Is it the ones for Isophon PSL 320/400? The woofers in the Anthaeus are based on that driver.
- What is the proper amount of damping material in the speaker? My pair is pathologically overdampened, there are tons of wool stuffed in every crevice. That can't be right.
- How should the little red trimmers be set by default? Are they only to compensate little variances between individual drivers or do they serve some more peculiar purpose, like creating a specific curve on the overall frequency characteristic?
- Did anyone ever measure the Anthaeus? Could you share their measurements?

To illustrate what I have already done, I have created a simple website about the repair project I am going to undertake. Whoever is interested, please read through it and feel free to comment on anything that catches your eye. I am going to be expanding that website on almost daily basis now. That said, I am going to do the repair here in the Czech Republic with local technicians and servicemen unless there is an obstacle that can't be overcome. I am not going to ship every faulty component (which is everything) to Germany for multi-thousand EUR repairs with zero visibility into the process, which is something I have been offered. Woofers reconing for 1k EUR. Electronics overhaul for 5k EUR. The list goes on. This is out of scope. I want to understand what is wrong with the speakers and how it gets fixed and pay the necessary costs, not ship something out and receive something back and know nothing about what changed.

It would be awesome if we could have participation from various Anthaeus owners in this thread. The more I learn the better the chance I will get everything right. Besides, this (and my page) could become a great knowledge foundation for every future Anthaeus owner since there is not a single website on the internet that would have all the information on one place. This could benefit us all.

Thank you very much everyone and, once again, sorry for the English.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Jiri
Brno, Czech Republic

Hi Jiri!
This is Ioannis from Greece.
We had a talk some years ago about a Quadral Titan MKV that you bought from Switzerland...remember?
Funny that years later i am in exactly the same situation...almost!
A friend with home space problems decided to sell his beloved Infinity IRS BETAS and i advised him to get the Anthaeus as a more compact solution with roughly the same sound...plus all the internal amplification.
He did it about a year ago, and now we are (actually i am doing it) in the proccess of restoring them to their former glory...including a respray in black piano gloss.
I am doing a total capacitance renewal as one in the main reservoir blew when the speaker was turned on.
Maybe we can work together in this and share findings!
My mail is konjohn@hotmail.com and you can contact me anytime.