Stereophile review- Fisher 500 C

My Fisher 400 was truly a great communicator of music, far outclassing its value. I did find that I needed to have it repaired every couple of years. Fortunately we have a local expert in Palo Alto, and it's fun to have the excuse to meet with him and nose around his antique radio collection.

I did have the "Fisher Doc" totally renovate my 400 in the early '90's. And it has always looked gorgeous with it's beautiful original wood case.

My reasons for selling it last year, I guess you call it "lifestyle". It's large and heavy and I would just as soon have a modern tube unit in it's place. But the price hurdle to get better sound than the 400 is substantial.

Art

Wow, incredible to need to have a 400 repaired every two years. Sounds like it was not really repaired but a band aid put on it. My McIntosh tube tuners, for example, have been working fine non-stop daily use, aside from tube changes, for decades.

Well, one time the volume control on/off switch broke. Apparently this is one of the few weaknesses of the unit. You are supposed to use an external on-off switch. The problem was easy to bypass. The on/off part broke, not the potentiometer.

Another time - recently - a resister (I think it was) blew. Cost $30 total to fix including labor. I also paid to have the unit fully tested to make sure nothing else was clearly going bad.

This last time I had it open, I took tuner spray to all the switches,and that is highly recommended! It cleaned up any noise I was getting from the switches.

If I was keeping it, I'd be tempted to find a way to upgrade the power cord.

I did not feel that the unit was particulary unreliable, just a little more prone to breakdown due to age.

Art

Check out for the 500C:

http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/beegee/290/page3.html

http://www.quadesl.com/schematics.shtml

This could make life easier for you for many, many years with respect to similar issues with this vintage equipment. Well worth the investment compared to a used FIM Gold power cord I once thought was such a great value at $600.