Just another source for hard to find tubes:
http://www.vacuumtubes.net/ |
Listening to the 500C through my Talon Peregrine X Mark IIs is simply an wonderful experience given not only the age of the unit but in, many respects, absolute terms as well. The spaciousness with efficient great speakers (mine are 95db efficient) is superb. Evaluating equipment that is going on nearly half a century old first depends on being sure the equipment is tuned up, maintainance done and good quality and strong tubes installed. It also depends on system synergy, musical preferences etc. I thought there would be far more faults in the unit. I just sit back and enjoy some Miles Davis or Mozart. We have some really great, non-compressed FM Stations here in Madison, Wisconsin including www.wort-fm.org and the Fisher 500C really convey's the music and voice (e.g., for example The Prairie Home Companion on NPR) in a lifelike, "you are there way" that evades nearly all solid state units.
It is amazing to see how much audio and other products have slide backwards via successful marketing campaigns to sell us cheaper stuff that is easier to manufacture and/or give convenience. But the convenience (as in what MP3 is to music or McDonalds is to food) misses the point of the stuff (LPs to CDs, CDs to MP3) Tubes to early solid state, analog to digital tuners etc). There is something about not expecting much and being very pleasantly surprized. There is also something, negative, to an entire generation growing up assuming convenience is the point of living and misses the point of things or the way things are enjoyed that can elevate the experience of living but require something from you. |
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. |
There are multiple reasons for going into this discussion. But the first is music and beautiful acoustic music is what the 500C makes. Secondly, my Talons, for example, are very easily driven to loud levels with ease by the 500C. My former B&W 801s were power hogs that truly required massive abouts of current and as such it was sort of like buying a car that required jet fuel (Krell or big Classe) to run it (extremely wasteful of energy and my retirement savings). Third: no one is apologizing for the 500C but rather emphasizing its virtues. Fourth: China is the home of sweatshop almost everything and, unless one does not care about sustainability in all its dimensions we should be mindful of where we buy and, of course, do you really expect in the foreseeable future long term warranty support from a Chinese company. Like Walmart (who by the way according to the WSJ purchases 80% of everything in their stores from manufacturing plants in China), the typical Chinese approach is about price and then good-bye and not long term parts and service support. Fifth: Many modern tube designs use tubes that are truly in short supply and not likely to be carried on into the future. The power tubes for the 500C are about $75 per matched quad and the other tubes are also very cheap and except for one, and that one has a common substitue, in great supply. Sixth: 500C service is relatively easy and done by Americans in your home town even though I suppose you could ship it over to China for support (sort of an oximoran) Seventh: The world does not need more of its resources dug up to produce brand new transformers, sheet metal and thick faceplates it is already there to be recycled in the 500C. Eighth: The 500C can educate an entire generation brought up on MP3 music that music is about the shortest distance to the soul and connecting to it in a large, vivid way makes that experience meaningful. You can eat at McDonalds to get eating out of the way or you can eat well and dramatically healthier by buying locally grown non-corporate farm produce and free range, non-antiotic laden, meat you cook yourself (sort of like the comparison of having the convenience of 1000s of compressed music files on a computer to the "major effort" of placing an LP on a turntable). It could also educate them about how marketing produces Markets to those that are unaware of how they are being dupped into inferior life experiences. Life is short. I recall a famous line: "You have an awful long time to be dead" Buying into the something because you see it advertized everywhere no more makes it a good decision to purchase than a politican repeating a lie enough times hoping to make it a truth. Ninth: It is simply a joy to connnect full circle with history and realize greatness that needs no apologies. |
The 500C is not going to sound incredible with energy hog and muffled/closed in sounding speakers, compared to todays offerings, like the early 60s vintage AR-3s. Many of the todays highly efficient speakers bass, midrange, tweeter speed is blindingly fast, open, and spacious compared to the AR-3/AR-3a days. Using the AR-3s with the Fisher 500C is like putting a cheap lense on a Hasselblad, you can still take a picture but the quality of the picture will be limited by the lense not the camera. Imagine how Ansel Adam's grand, crystaline clear landscapes pictures taken with large format film would look like if he took those pictures with a 1MB digital camera (http://www.anseladams.com/Yosemite-Special-Edition-Photographs-C110.aspx ). Get the Windex out and clean the fog on the window to what the 500C can do: leave the AR-3s in the garage and bring the 500C after cap replacements/routine maintainance into the main listening room. |
As many know, including myself historically, dismissing something because of preconceived notions can be a costly endeaver in Audio. "Nothing to get overly excited about...", "great for a garage...", "I bought my 500C at a garage sale in mint condition for $20.." sound uncanningly like, but not necessarily so, what you see too much on venues like Audioreview.com where someone wants to be a spoiler without much truly critical thought given to a "review" even if the reviewer actually has listened to what they say they are reviewing. Another potential motivation of similar comments I and countless high-end dealers have seen over the last 40 years is a need to justify spending way too much on audio so some folks spend time putting down less expensive alternatives. Somehow both seem less than geniune or at least they don't seem to be. But this is afterall just a matter of taste and just like being at a salad bar making a salad when someone comes up and tells you "hey, you are not going to like that salad because I (pointing at his/her salad) like mine this way". Why, I often wonder, can not people see that audio equipment sound taste is at least as subjective as palate taste and as such not be so dismissive of anothers "salad". The Fisher 500C gets so much right for so little that rarely does solid state do. When I feel deeply moved emotionally, (my Hovland HP-100 preamp contributed to this sense of awareness in spades), by the music played through audio equipment I know I am listening to a synergy of equipment that is doing what the point of music is suppose to be about: Connection. |
Discrete components are typically easier to replace and at lower cost after several years than much todays totally unstocked, in a few to several short years integrated circuits. If it is running after 40 years of use imagine the bargain and durability with replacing the parts prone to breakdown. In addition, notice how modern companies like Gamut went to point to point wiring for better sonics. However some parts can be hard to find but when you have a legend there are alternatives:
http://www.quadesl.com/schematics.shtml
I would not rely on General Motors being around, at least as well know it, in 10 years but I would rely on a 500C with maintainance updates being around working at mid-century.
I would not commute in a Porsche xxx anymore than I would in a porker SUV but I would experience real driving experience in one (the Porsche that is) and be even more excited and, for me, more rewarded in updating an proven incredibly durable, musical performer like the 500C for another half century of soul connecting bliss. The 500C is not near state of the art like my Hovland but it is a great communicator of music it seems insane how good it is for so little and how much enjoyment can come from it that solid state at many multiples the cost just does not get. |
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. |
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. |
