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Adcom 545 I or II-to leak or not to leak?

burnsyaz

burnsyaz

Active Member
I am in the market for an Adcom 545 power amp but I am not sure which one to get. I have been reading that the Adcom II series(454/555/565) power amps can have problems related to the caps leaking onto the board. I have also read a contrary post that stated that the 454 II did not have the leaking same leaking problem as the 555II/565II models did. Does anyone know which is the correct answer? I may have a chance to pick up a 545 II and I just want to be on the safe side.

If the 545 II does not have issues with leakage how does it compare to the original 545 soundwise(not concerned with features just the sound)? Thanks -Tony
 
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I'm not versed in Adcom gear, but if caps are leaky, they are cheap and easy to replace. Price and "does it work" would be the factors in my mind. You might get a bargain with a bit of work.
 
I just want to get an Adcom that will be safe to run until I get around to getting it re-capped. I have read that if the caps do leak while you are using the amp you can do all kinds of damage to the output tranny, speakers ect..
 
I've owned both the GFA-535 and GFA-545 II. The binding posts and their spacing are far superior on the II series. FWIW, neither of those had leaking cap issues although I've read of the problem around the boards. Both series of these amps are quickly approaching "vintage" status, and as with any older gear, their caps can become leaky and/or fail.
 
Thanks I'm going to take a look at it tomorrow. From what I can tell it appears to be in very good condition.
 
I have a ton of Adcom gear. Including a 545. The only ones that had leaking cap concerns are the 565's. The 545 I & 545 II are both great little amps IMOP.
 
Actually it is the 565 and 585 that had the leaking cap issue. Adcom also has a tech brief available for these two amps that discuss the issue. No surprise perhaps that these two amps were designed by the same guys at Adcom (NOT Mr. Pass), and share a lot of circuit similiarities.

I have yet to hear of any similiar issues with the other Adcom models. If someone has some real evidence that other models have this same problem I would love to hear about it. Considering that there were so many more of the other models produced compared to relatively few 565s and 585s, I would have expected to hear proportionally more reports of issues. However, the only consistent reports of problems are with these two problem amps.
 
Well I picked up the 545 yesterday. It is currently pushing my Integra DX-200 cd player (no preamp or eq) into my a/d/s/ L9e's right now and it sounds like a great match. Very smooth with great separation. The bass is also very present for running 8" woofers.

Thanks again to everyone.
 
electrolytic caps have a stated life span of 20 years. Pretty good chance they may last longer and not leak. But anything after the 20 year time period is a possible ticking time bomb. So, thinking about it, anything made before 1990 is due to have the caps replaced.
I have always liked to dig into and tear things apart, but main reason I learned to do it myself is it would cost me a small fortune to start shipping everything out to have it re-capped. Caps are cheap, it is the labor and the shipping charges if no one is close by that kills you.
caps may last another 20 years, they may not.
One thing that is apparently debatable, but I have yet not to notice a fairly dramatic difference in the sound also when i replace the caps. Electrolytic caps are full of a paste that dries out (hence the 20 year life span) so when you do re-cap it, good chance you are putting better caps in it and repairing some bad ones which may not be leaking, but have dried out.
My simple rule is, if it is a keeper, it gets new caps - whether it is speakers, amps or whatever - even did my eq and will be doing my turntable. great opportunity to do a little upgrading while in there as film caps are so much cheaper now, so if possible and if it is in the signal path, i switch out the e.caps to film caps.
 
I said it in another thread: if you're in there, have the thing all apart, replace those old caps. Reliability of gear you are keeping is the issue. Current cap technology is superior to the 20 year old stuff. Plus, it's fun picking new shiny caps~
 
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