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Does Adcom make good Amps ?

SoCal Sam said:
Umm, ok. If anything, I was taking the Secretary General of United Nations approach.

Anyways, the guys over there modded the 555 to which Nelson was mostly mum.
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Right, iirc. He recommended using ceramic bodied fuses of the same ratings, and said to continue enjoying them as-is. A couple improvements for the original series suggested by a rebuilder include adding a flag heatsink sink to the bias transistor, which runs hot, and a couple 47uF /160V local rail bypass elyticaps post-fuses on each board channel.
 
@Pio1980
I think that where my over-simplified understanding of the whole coupling capacitors usage comes from, is from me reading all (and I do mean all) of the afore-mentioned manufacturers owners manuals.
Nelson Pass or Mark Levinson will describe what they've done in extremely laymans terms, and they accentuate the what & why, and specifically soften the how.
AKers like yourself, actually understand the, how, quite well, but the rest of us have to muddle around in the more vague area of what and why.

Dave
 
I had a 545II, 535, and even a 5802 but the 5802 did sound a bit different then the rest of Adcom line I tried. Also, I about to pickup a 5500 soon. Does the 5500 have the DC rail protection?
 
Curious about the 555ms. I live in Thailand and these are pretty cheap on Lazada. 25,000 baht for some Pass goodness, which currently equates to around 600gbp. The 'SE' version is priced alot higher.

What are the main differences?
 
I have come across Adcom power amps in my local CL and fb marketplace and not one has been priced under $200. I wonder if they are really that good?
 
I had the GFA 565 monoblocks In white close to 30 years ago & found them to be stellar amps ,I can't speak to Adcoms life span as I was moving alot of gear back then : nothing stayed in my system long ,I also had the matching white Adcom preamp that I disliked because of the tuner section couldn't pick up an old lady's farts but the amps were a great deal .
 
@JayBlok
$200+ is a pretty fair price for a decent amp.
My Adcom GFA 555ii is the least expensive component in my system, and I'll probably replace it with a Pass Labs at some point. But the system sounds great as it is, so I will only bother to replace it with an amp in the $4000 to $8000 range (used).

Dave
 
JayBlok said:
I have come across Adcom power amps in my local CL and fb marketplace and not one has been priced under $200. I wonder if they are really that good?
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Not under 200 dollars?

You wonder if they are really that good?

Interesting....

What about the $200+ price tag leads you to wonder if they are "that good"? And how good is "that good"?
 
z-adamson said:
Not under 200 dollars?

You wonder if they are really that good?

Interesting....

What about the $200+ price tag leads you to wonder if they are "that good"? And how good is "that good"?
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I'm just used to finding good quality power amplifiers for cheap or free,i'm probably thinking if it's over $200,there has to be something special about that power amp.
 
Adcom amps sound good but older ones without relay are too risky to play. The newer SE's are relay equipped.
 
ekkamai12 said:
Curious about the 555ms. I live in Thailand and these are pretty cheap on Lazada. 25,000 baht for some Pass goodness, which currently equates to around 600gbp. The 'SE' version is priced alot higher.

What are the main differences?
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SE has speaker relay. The older 555 can be retrofitted with a relay, which is highly recommended.
 
If you update the 555's (thanks again AK'ER Mayank for the modded 555's!!) to the original Pass design (As I understand it Adcom used his design but changed the quality of some of the components to save costs when they went into mass production) I think the risk is no greater than many other amps that do not use a speaker protection relay. However with my original 545 running my Polk RTA 12's and BBC Monitors I do use a standalone speaker protector.
 
JayBlok said:
I'm just used to finding good quality power amplifiers for cheap or free,i'm probably thinking if it's over $200,there has to be something special about that power amp.
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Now I am curious...

What are some examples of cheap or free good quality amps? Thats not the case here in portland oregon. Either that or we have differing ideas at to what a good quality amp is.
 
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z-adamson said:
Now I am curious...

What are some examples of cheap or free good quality amps? Thats not the case here in portland oregon. Either that or we have differing ideas at to what a good quality amp is.
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A few samples of power amps i have purchased /found in the past year.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....oodwill-sa-finds.6803/page-1227#post-11412538
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....oodwill-sa-finds.6803/page-1227#post-11417828
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....oodwill-sa-finds.6803/page-1216#post-11323596
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index....oodwill-sa-finds.6803/page-1204#post-11205007
 
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