Hafler DH 500 update?

The issue is money. IF you spend the couple of hundred dollars to have it 'checked, and the caps replaced' then you still have an amp only worth a couple of hundred bucks.
My being a real cheapskate, I would just use it. And not worry about it. If it currently is working, why fix what is not broken?

And yeah if you had buckets of money get it checked. If not, then take MY advice.
But I think if you had buckets of money, you would have had a better amp than this hand me down.
So do not worry about it.

Musical Concepts can help you a lot with this old Hafler. If your brother "gave" it to you, then you might want to spend a little to "freshen" it up.

I spent $1200 to upgrade my DH-500, and the sound is more neutral then my Mac. I also plan on keeping the amp till I die. By the way, I read on this forum where one guy described the looks of the DH-500 as "early World War 2 submarine radio style"

Elizabeth makes some very valid points. Just for a tech to look over an amp by me is now $60 to $75 depending on the equipment. Then after all their work they could be into you for hundreds and if you were to sell the DH500 you would lose out. Musical Concepts is a whole other story. I once had a Hafler XL280 that was modded by them and the music was really nice.

Now when I had the Hafler DH-500 one thing I did was clean the insides of it. The fan inside the DH-500 will bring all sorts of dust into it. I bought some cleaners from Radioshack and sprayed the boards. The speaker terminals and IC posts were sprayed with DeOxit. I vacuumed what I could with a small vacuum cleaner.

On a popular auction site if you search for Hafler of Hafler DH you will find repair kits that aren't too much money. There were replacement Power Supply caps for $50 that looked pretty easy to install.

Also the looks of the DH-500 are on point with what Paul_graham said. The green color scheme and looks of the DH-500s are really military like. Drab and all business. Nothing pretty at all except for the sound. All in all I wish I still had a DH-500.

The one wild card with Elizabeth's advise is the potential for damaging your speakers. If a cap goes bad in the wrong way, its just not the amp at risk.

Your call.

I'd upgrade it or dump it. Its too old to plug in.