AMC tube gear... any good?


Looking for some lower cost components and I've run across AMC tube amps and preamps. Is this gear any good? Is the company still selling it? Or would I be safer and happier going the Adcom route? I've had tube gear in the past, and always liked it.... just not sure if this is good stuff or not. thx....
pjr300
I wouild personally stay away from it. There are several other units out there that sound better. From China and other places in the Orient. The integrated amp wasn't as good a my Stereo 70. Sound stage depth wasn't there. The top end was simply ok. Much better out there. I didn't like the arrangement of the wiring inside the unit and the tube sockets and replacing the tubes was a chore. Biasing was a BEAR!

Watch the Tube Preamp. I sold one to a guy and it took out his speakers. He was using a solid state amp and the preamp had several issues internally.
pretty good stuff...comes from taiwan and does share parts with nad and proton.
AMC tube equipment, amps at least (never had one of their pres), is good for the money IMHO. Yes, the company is still selling it. Brent at Retodaze Audio is a distributor and has offerings here sometimes and on Ebay and is a good guy to deal with. I have a 2030 amp which is I like fine. Only problem it is an EL34 based tube amp which has great highs and mids but is bass shy. This keeps it out of my main rig which I run a McCormack DNA-125 amp. Just seemingly a common problem with EL34s and not AMC. You are comparing apples and oranges between AMC tubed equipment or any tube equipment and Adcom or any SS equipment. AMC tube stuff is entry level into tubes, but it sounds like tubes. Sure there is better tube gear available but it is certainly more costly. Other decent tube brands for the money to look at are Jolida and Onix. Adcom gear IMHO again is entry level into SS. You can find tons of used Adcom stuff for sale at decent prices. But depending on your budget if I were looking SS I would look at used Forte or older Classe equipment which once again IMHO offer excellent value in used SS and will blow Adcom equipment out of the water and will hold value in the used market much better than Adcom. Another thought is some of the older PS Audio or Superphon gear which can be had cheaper than Classe or Forte, not as good as Classe or Forte, but still beats Adcom. Another consideration is your speakers and listening tastes when deciding between tubes and SS. If you like a warm mellow sounds and don't miss the bass tightness and extension and have efficient speakers tubes might be the route for you. But if you like tight controlled and extended bass and more focused sound with alot of punch you should go SS.
The AMC stuff is being sold through the same distributors that sell lots of generic stuff. It looks like old NAD (same gray box). Some of their solid state designs appear to be old NAD until you look at the headroom, IM distortion, THD, etc.

Adcom would be better.
Parasound would be better than Adcom at a similar price.

Good luck!