Fulton

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Equipment[add model]

General information [contribute]

Lloyde Dees (June 2000): I am the proud owner of a pair of "J Modular" from Fulton Musical Ind. Please, realize that the founding owner, designer and guru of Fulton Musical Industries, Robert Fulton passed away in Minneapolis, MN several years ago. So, the Fulton speaker product line only exists as a past product and is not available presently.

Thomas Moore (November 2, 2005): I currently own the following models of FMI speakers:

• Fulton Premiere P-12
• Fulton J Modular
• Fulton 80s
• Fulton Little Maestro
• Fulton Nuance
• Fulton Tempo (Oval Window)
• Bravura Preamps sold by FMI

I also have Fulton Tonearms, Transformers, Phono Carts., Speaker Wire, Interconnects, Tonearm wires and bearings and spare parts. I was a personal friend of Robert Fulton and worked at his factory and on the road doing mods and repairs. I am interested in buying some of his speakers and spare parts.

Tim Chamberlain (February 22, 2009): Bob Fulton was my Dad's uncle. My dad told me a lot of stories about Uncle Bob and his speakers. My dad helped build the speakers for Uncle Bob and has some of the things Uncle Bob designed. It's cool to see how people thought highly of his speakers.

Keith Glueck (October 2, 2009): I made the Fulton Tonearms for Bob Fulton,back in the 1980's.I sold them thru Dave Herren at the Audio Alternative store in Portland Oregon.Bob heard my tonearm at Daves store and wanted to sell them thru FMI. I sold them also thru Dave to his customers around the world. The FMI arms had a srew hight adjustment that the arms that Dave sold did not have. Dave passed away saddly about five years ago now. I still have bearings and parts for more tonearms. Would like to hear from you Tim.. Thanks, Keith Glueck 503 667 9179

Mark Tuttle (February 13, 2010): Hello Tim, Keith, Lloyd, and Thomas. I lived in Minneapolis in the 70's and was in Bob Fulton's living room listening to speaker modifications many times. My brother is John Tuttle, and he is the designer and builder of the Bravura preamp that FMI sold. I also helped assemble many of the Bravura preamps, and still own one. I also still have a pair of FMI Emod speakers, which are FMI 80's with a large woofer element and crossover to beef up the bottom end. I will be moving to China soon, and would like to sell the Emod woofers to someone who might appreciate them. Do you know someone who might be interested? Please contact me. Thanks, Mark mtuttle1@gmail.com

Jim Manier (February 23, 2012): Jim Manier (February 23, 2012): This is for Mark Holmes. I just read your note indicating you have a complete FMI E system you wanted to sell. If you still have it I may be interested in buying it. Please post a reply here if you're interested. Thank you.

gary (May 23, 2012): i aquired some fmi speakers and need help to identify, and possibly be interested in selling them!!! my email is ggriffin22@yahoo.com, i can send pics of them too!!!!!!!

History[contribute]

Ben Strong (December 2001): Several lifetimes ago, in the late 70s, I believe, I was a Development Manager in Poughkeepsie, New York in IBM Corp's Large System Development Division. I also had a small interest in the leading audio store in the Hudson Valley, Sound Odyssey, and was President of the Poughkeepsie Audio Society. I read an article somewhere about Bob Fulton and his speaker design and contacted him to make a presentation at our monthly Society meeting. The J-Modular Speaker system proved to be a sensation, most of the members considering it to be the best they had heard. Bob was our house guest initiating a friendship that lasted until his untimely death. I negotiated with Bob to have Sound Odyssey become a Fulton dealer (His bookshelf speaker with an 8" woofer proved to be a bestseller - I still have a pair in my kitchen).

We ordered one set of the J-modulars for a demo system and I ordered a set at the normal salesman's accommodation discount for my personal use. In those days store price was generally 40% off retail and salesman's price 50% off. I THINK my total cost was a bit below $1500 for the pair , which price escalated rapidly. As I remember Bob changed the name late in their life and they were running around $4000. Bob personally delivered and set up my system and the store demo system. From that time onward, until he died, Bob would always stop by our house for a couple of days whenever he was traveling to the East Coast, bringing with him the latest updates for my J-Modulars.

My two sons and I loved the speakers which I believe could carry a true 32" organ pipe - I believe that is close to 16 Hertz! My good wife hated them because of the size - she compared them to a pair of coffins or two mother-in-laws glaring at her! (She proved her love, in spite of it, as we celebrated our 50th Anniversary last month). The original design was somewhat inefficient and I ended up with a pair of high end 300 watt amps that Kenwood, (of all companies!) had designed in an abortive attempt to enter the high end market. The were a perfect match for the Fultons though. The system was so good at the time of Bob's death that I often wondered what they would have sounded like if he had lived?

At the end of 1991 I retired from IBM and we moved to Pensacola, Florida in January 1992. The Fultons were much too large for our living room in the new house and again using my salesman's discount, bought a pair of ADS M15 tower speakers which, except for a low end of around 32 Hertz, were almost as good as the ten or fifteen year old Fultons they replaced. (At least to my much older ears which became 65 in 1992). I ran an ad in the Absolute Sound and sold them to a nice guy living in the Midwest, I believe who personally picked them up with a rented trailer. I've often wondered where they ended up? They packed in four cartons around a meter square (two for the base units and two for the top units) plus a couple of bookshelf cartons for the midrange units.

I just read an interesting article in the Electrostatic section of this grouping - I think that although the Fultons had an electrostatic high end it was mainly a dynamic system so it really should be listed in The Dynamic Loudspeaker Circuit. Call it down memory lane.

Those old Audio Society days were great though as we were able to get some great speakers because of our favorable location. Paul Klipsch, a great speaker although I was never fond of his speakers, Gordon Gow of McIntosh, Tomlinson Holman, a true genius, Amar Bose, one of the finest salesman I have ever run into, Avery Fisher, the designer of Dynaco whose name I have forgotten, the gentleman who created Acoustic Research and some other fine companies and many more of the great names in audio.

Thomas E Layman (March 18, 2010): I bought a pair of the Fulton Js from Bob in the early 1970, model 4 in his ever-going search for sonic beauty. Bought them with the understanding that they MUST work with my solid state amp-preamp. I had auditioned them with Audio Research SP3-A1 preamp and a D-150 amp, using a Black Widow arm on an unknown turntable and cartridge. Perfectly blown away! Got them home to my solid-state stuff and they sounded like dogs!! So....ended up buying the damned SP3-A1 and the D-150...cost me an arm and a leg. Bob brought the speakers to my home in South Minneapolis and connected the amp to the Js with 26 feet (!!!!) of water-hose-thick cable of his manufacture, rolling it up into a coil. I had only about a 4 foot run from amp to speaker so clearly I was blown away by this mass of cable! Bob said that the cable should be 1/2 the length of the lowest note played by the speaker, and that would be 24 Hz and therefore the length calculated to be 26 feet! Damndest thing I'd heard of. But I will swear that I have never gotten such 3-D sound and impressive bass as I did with the Fulton J Modulars that I then owned. Spooky at times! On Leo Kottke's album "Burnt Lips" on the Cool Water cut the twings a string and with those speakers and the long hose of cable you could hear the high-pitched accidental go flying up the right almost to the ceiling...scared the dickens out of me when I first heard it...Absolutely stunning speakers for their time (and even our time) and Robert Fulton was a very fine gentleman who died much much too early in life of prostatic carcinoma. Too bad we didn't have PSA testing back then, he could still be around making great speakers.

REYNALDO TIU (June 24, 2010): Hi, Good day, aren't you selling your SP 3 Preamp? I am interested. please email me. asap. Thanks Rey.

Refurbishing & modifications[contribute]

Greg Smith (October 28, 2009): This is for Thomas Moore. This is Greg in Las Vegas. You hooked me up with some Fulton 80s in 1981. Can you help me aquire some more Fulton gear; ie 100s, Nuances, Premiers, etc? thank you

Mark Holmes (March 9, 2010): This is for Greg Smith. I have a complete FMI E system (woofer boxes, 80s and dynamic tweeter array ) that I would like to sell. Post a reply here if you're interested. I'm located in Southern California.

Thomas Moore (May 3, 2011): Hello to all that have an interest in Fulton. I can help you with your questions and do some mods. I am also interested in buying Fulton speakers, tonearms, and the Bravura preamp.

Thomas Moore (November 2, 2005): Able to do repairs and mods on Fulton Speakers.
Tonearm repairs and mods. Repairs of Bravura Preamps.

Thomas Moore (November 2, 2005): Mods to Bravura Preamps and H/K 430s

Forum topics on Fulton

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