power , upgradable , smooth sweet hi-end. Unbeatable price for this class of gear.

butt-ugly , loose bottom end , fan cooled

Picked this up used locally on a whim to see if it would improve on my bi-amp AR set up (early 90's ) I had lots of trouble with noise/hum at first. so changed the rca inputs , binding posts, power switch at the wimpy power cord. Still no good , turns out a driver was bad .Once that was replaced , dead quiet , except for the fan but you only hear it if you are up close changing a disc. Sound ? Well I think this amp is a real hi-fi deal . Great soundstage and smooth top end . Female vocals and sparse recordings jump out at you , jazz and audiophile type blues really shine. the bottom end goes very low and is HUGE , but I find it a bit loose .The bass seems to run on , not that tight. I tend to think it has a bit of a "tube" sound. I only use it in a home system ,driving energy E-5.1's so can't comment on it's huge power reserves but it does play clean. Make a list of amps that will drive ANYTHING ,that can give you a glimpse of hi-end sound, and that can offer you an upgrade path for under a grand (new or used ) and I think you will find it's a pretty short list .But I think I am still going back to my AR bi amp configuration that gives me only about 200wx2 on paper but seems to have a much tighter bottom with a bit less silky sound and a different soundstage . too bad I can't get the best of both . My buddy runs the same amp with a ASL tube pre and it sounds pretty sweet also .

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AR-P10 , AR-07 , numerous other, NAD's, Pioneers , Denon , Yamaha .

Sound, relaibelity, SOUND!!!

Ain't none

I got one of the last DH-500 kits from sound Values, who look like have disappeared. Had it rebuilt by VanAlstine. WOW, teh sound is magnificent driving my Legacy FOCUS speakrs...It's REAL, it ALIVE, it's like being in the studio with The Rolling Stones on SACD !!!! I Bi-Amp my FOCUS with 2 DH-500's...one I had for some time, An Omega III and the latest an OMEGASTAR from Van Alstine...Hafler/Vanalstine musical BLISS !!!

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Years ago Dyna 400

RELIABILITY,steady full range ability,cost efficiency,did I mention reliability...? 5 Stars ain't enough>>>...

?????

Back to bi-amping with a pair of these incredible,virtually indestructible,overachieving ole DH 500's! These amps NEVER fail to amaze me. Currently vertically bi-amping them with a pair of Paradigm Reference Studio 100 V2's. The soundstage,separation,clarity and power availability at any load to 2 ohms is never an issue.Of course there's always the cost to performance ratio and that's incredible without discussion. These amps are steady at ANY sound level, especially mid to high SPL's.

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Marantz 500 & 510, Various Crown products,Adcom GFA 5802, McIntosh 7270,& a few others!

Tons of reserve, very musical, great sense of soundstage while maintaining a solid image even at high power.

Wimpy power cord replaced. Too big to fit in my Target stand.

Just got the heavy bugger home and immediately hooked it up to my Magneplanar MG-11c''s. Source is Meridian 500 and EAD HDCD 7000Mk11 DAC. Well I must admit it is every bit as clean,musical and powerful as the simularily powered Perreault. My Duson, as nice as it is just couldn''t deliver the large amounts of very clean current this baby does. It will warm up for a few hours and then I will try to draw some final conclusions. Boy did the Maggies ever open up. Cardas Golden Cross interconnects and speaker cables.

Similar Products Used:

The big Acurus 500, Duson B-100, Pereault.

musical,powerful

rca jacks

got amp from pawnshop ffor a grant because of a dead channel put in a 50cent resistor adjusted the bias and away i went amp has detailed sound plenty of power and is very musical can drive low impedance speakers

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b&k avr654 amp

Great reputation.

Output jacks

Actually, I''m looking for information on the Hafler model P-500. Is it the predecessor to the DH-500? If anyone has information and specifications please forward it to my Email address at zebrowskij@oceusa.com Thank you in advance. John Zebrowski

Having a solid enough basic design to have someone like Musical concepts take an interest in perfecting it.

yeah right LOL

What has prompted this review of my Dh500 is a recent upgarde done by musical concepts. I have owned this amp for 19 years so I am completely aquainted with the sound of it as a stock unit. It was definately a fine amp which is why I have kept it for this long but it was always a little strained and after some listening sessions at higher volume you felt the need to turn it off. I had literature from msical concepts from 1982 in a file and had never done any of the mods. on the amp, and I guess I just assumed musical concepts was long dead and buried until just a while back I saw someone refer to a hafler for auction on e-bay with the musical concepts mods and proceeded to list the website (www.musicalconcepts.com). Well I had long regretted not going through with this back in the 80''s so I decided to go ahead and get it modified. Here is the list of work it received: 1000 watt torroidal transformer with dual windings. 4 power reserve caps to replace the two originals and converted to a totally dual mono design with over twice the storage capacity of the original. Cardas copper binding post, gold rca jacks, a replaceable 3 prong power cord, a new sculpted aluminum faceplate and the middle grade 599.00 signature series front end modification with extensive use of black gate caps throughout. Grand total $1400.00. Now the question you are asking is how could he have spent twice as much as it was worth new on an upgrade? Well the answer is if you want to hear anything even Close to what has come out of Mr. Hillig''s workshop for the poultry $1400.00 I believe you will be spending upwords of 5 times that much. It is simply beyond description. If you own a hafler or have a chance to buy one, RUN, don''t walk to his website and get at least the front end upgrade if not any of the other ones I have had done. You will absolutely not be able to get the grin off your face after you hear the difference it is simply amazing. No it is SIMPLY MUSICAL.....PERIOD please do yourself a favor and get this done, it is the best!

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There are none similar to this......sorry

Clean Power, relayability

NONE

I am a professional DJ of 18 years. I have carried this monster with me powering various speakers during that time without incident. Everything from freezing cold to accidental case drops this amp as been true. My only repair was one set of banana plugs have been replaced.

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Crown PS2

Excellent in delivering bass to my Polk(SDA-2's).

awful little cord for such a power house. If using in cool enviroment let amp warm.

For 3 years had Polks and vegas D3's hooked up to it. Polks 4 ohms D3's 8 ohms do math 2.6667 ohms this thing handled as long as room tempature was 72 degress or less no trouble of course fan ran at high speed. Hooked them up to 901s that were suspended from the ceiling causing them to swing back and forth. The owner of the 901s said, so that is where you get the bass out of 901s drive them with a "REAL" amp not JVC 100 watt receiver. I could talk hours about this amp. Did have one problem though. Came home in the winter time(after a party) furnace wasn't working, room was 50 degrees turned on stereo full blast right channel went out. Put new 2sk176,2sj56 in and away I went. Even if I wasn't an Electronic technician, putting these Mosfets in was very easy(always keep one hand on metal case because Mosfets are static sensitive). So let amp warm for a few minutes and you will never have any problem with this amp other than who to will it to after you gone!

clean, clear, dynamic sounding amp - extremely musical

none

I purchased this amp as a kit almost 20 years ago - It worked from turn on and has never failed to impress. This amp has some of the best musicality of any solid state amp - Threshold and Aragon included! It displayed no sonic flaws - tremendous balance of all the best virtues one would want in an amplifier. It's hard to explain but this is probably the finest sounding, truly high power amp value on the planet. This amp is so good that it would fare very well mated with very expensive ancillary equipment. I loved the sound and was floored by its out of this world performance! What really amazed me is that I built it myself - less than pristine solder work - yet, it sounded wonderful! If it was still in production, and I needed to replace my amp - no doubt - for my money - I'd purchase another Hafler DH-500.

FIVE STARS +

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Threshold, Aragon, McIntosh