Today was like Christmas...found Hafler DH 500


I was going through some things at my dad's house this morning. Opened a closet door and there was this black box with 2 binding posts staring at me. I wondered what that could be.....a Hafler DH500. I forgot I even bought it years ago. I remember that it had been modded....but that was 15-20 years ago.

Is it worth playing?? How does it stack up with todays amps.

I also picked up a Accuphase P300 that I had stored there. The P300 was really built well....and has meters...I love meters. So I am going to have it upgraded.

Has anybody upgraded the P300? How does it sound

I just had my C200 upgraded and it sounds great....the caps haven't come up yet. It should really improve after 100 hours. Btw all unit are atleast 9/10...Thanks for any input.

Roger
wavetrader
If you can stand the sound of the cooling fan: the bottom is very testicular, they exhibit the usual MOS-FET "mist" which is much better than the bi-polar bite(glare), they'll easily drive the most difficult loads and of course they put out enough current to arc-weld with(well, almost). I used one in my showroom in Florida to demo speakers with for years(365w peaks into 8 ohms), used a pair to bi-amp my Acoustat Mod III's(back in the 80's), and had one powering the woofers in my home system until 6 years ago(all modded slightly). My son is using the last one I had in his smaller DJ system. The only way you'll ever know if you like it is to hook it up. If it appeals to you: Install an IEC plug, internal power supply wiring, upgraded power cord, gold 5 way binding posts and RCAs and enjoy the music. I've still got a brand new(still in the original wrapper) Hafler DH-203 mod kit(Bailey Mod) to replace the input DC blocking electrolytics(C1). I was the exclusive Hafler dealer in Orlando for a few years, and custom built quite a number for my customers.
I just recently borrowed a DH500 till my Odyssey Khartago was returned from being upgraded. I hooked it up to my large horn speakers and Eastern Electric Minimax preamp and WOW it sounded wonderful. A warmish but nice big involving soundstage with good transparency, a very musical amp. I had to be careful with volume since the DH500 is a powerful sucker, more watts then my speaker rating! Once I finally received the Khartago and hooked it up I noticed it had the same attributes as the DH500 but the Khartago was more revealing and more refined. But I left the DH500 with a very good feeling about its sonics, thinking it was a great piece of gear for the price. With further minor upgrades it could easily compete with any modern solid state amp.
BTW- Was the modding done by Musical Concepts? They were one of the first to start commercially tweaking the Hafler gear.