Marantz 500... Anybody remember this amp?

I owned a Marantz Model 500 amplfiier briefly back in 1974. This was a solid state amp, but IIRC it sounded awesome on my system. The problem with this amplifier was that it started on fire. As odd as it seems, this was a fairly common problem with this amplifier. Hence I only kept it for a short while. Since I remember it sounding go good, I thought I'd see if any members remember it and thought the same. I replaced mine with a Crown DC-300A which did not seem to sound quite as good to me, but was extremely reliable. I was debating between these 2 amps at the time, so once the Marantz proved it was unreliable I went with the Crown. Btw, my previous amp was a Marantz 2270 receiver, so this was a major step forward for me.

As I was doing PA work at that time, I often took some of my hi-fi equipment with me to gigs. That was no small consideration in choosing the Crown. I can't tell you how many shows that Crown was involved with.

 

I've owned a Marantz 510 since about 1978 or so. Sounds great. Is is similar to the 500?

Kevin

 

I'm not sure Kevin.

I did some searching and can find nothing on it on the web other than a picture and a solicitation for a manual. It sure was pretty in gold.

 

My dad bought one brand new and I bought it from him several years ago. I gave it back to him about 2 years ao and as far as I know it's just sitting in his basement. I used it for a while to power a pair of Carver Amazing's until a bad preamp took out several of the output transistors. I had the amp repaired and it sa for 3 years but the next time I tried to use it there was something wrong with it again. This time it seems to be in the driver stage because it still has output, it's just very weak and is very distorted.

Supposedly there was only around 1000 of them built. Most of them seem to be missing the front cover for the power switch/input and output terminals.