Stereophile review- Fisher 500 C

What I found interesting about the Stereophile review was the reviewer's surprise that this piece was reasonably competitive with his modern gear. Which makes you wonder if there's really been as much sonic improvement in amplification as we all tend to think there has. We get on the escalator of new/better/latest-and-greatest and we think we're making significant advances, but maybe there is something illusory about all of the "improvement".

here's one great fallacy of the 500c.

its 40 yrs old. ---would you buy a car that's 40 yrs old even if its almost as fast as a current sports car?

another problem: some of the tubes are out of production.

the 500c is a hobbyist piece and a audiophile status piece, but reference caliber or great alternative for modern stuff it is not. $600 could be much better spent on a used integrated amp made in the 90s (think bryston, belles, MF, etc).

rhyno

hi,

I have a EICO hf-81 and it's almost 50 years old. It was rebuilt a year ago and it makes great music. My cost $500.00

I also own a Cary SLI-80 and it also makes great music at a higher price. I really like the Cary and it is better then the EICO, but I think vintage gear that's been restored are generally overachievers in terms of performance per dollar spent.

Larry Citro

I have to disagree with age meaning an automatic dismissal by itself. If it sounds good it is good. Does the 500c get everything right? No, of course not, but does it make you smile and relax and enjoy fine acoustic music? Yes and very much so. I have spent zillions on high end in the past and locally have heard mega multiples of 100K systems and have been in this "game" since the 500c was new. If I am excited by what I hear I do not care what it costs, what technology is doing the magic, or what it is suppose to say about me throwing so much discretional income at audio (I am embarassed to say how much I did this in the past and, unfortunately, likely to do in the future). The most important tubes in the 500c, in terms of durability, the 7591s output tubes are in full production. Yet, the nuvisters are ones for example that could be hard to find but with thousands and thousands of 500C's sold that may not be the case for a few years. That said, try to find many solid state ICs replacements that are just 20 years old and you will know the value of discrete circuits. Elegant tube designs from ages past are around and in surprizing demand for a reason and it is not marketing by the likes of Sony, actually around dispite of it.

Just a quick follow up. It turns out that the 6CW4 Nuvisters are very widely available and cheap now. Also the only tube that is hard to find the 6HR6 has two substitues, one of which the 6AU6 is widely available.