General opinion about ADCOM amplifiers

Pretty good muscle amps. I have had many models and used primarily for sub amps and midline theatre applications. Pretty reliable too. I had 7 55511 amps in mono- 600 watts on every Polk SRt in a 7.1 theatre and it was strong but non audiophile in its musicality to be blunt. I found the 555 pretty harsh in the upper midrange and treble region. The 5500 was cleaner and offered a better musical soundstage. It had most of the 555 s stregnths but half of its weakness . The 5800 was my favorite as it was powerful and nice in the midrange , especially for the money and for its time. I agree that the 535 is fairly musical but it is lacking for theatre dynamics. The Brystons are a good step up .Look for a used CAL 2500 . There is one for 4k now.

This "IMHO" comes late but maybe you are still shopping.
Most audiohounds never stop.I have a 555II and,5500.
I've had 3 other 555II's as well.For home theater I would say 5 channel Adcom would be good step up from reciever based HT.
Not as costly as Bryston 5 channel.You can always put the best quality sound up front and mix amps.The Adcoms seem to
engineer good value into thier product line.My opinion is they try to give you 80% performance for half the money.
Good parts,5 year wrrty.In thier newer models the bandwith is nice and wide,upper octaves are the best they've done yet.Bass is good.
The bryston carries the 20year transferrable wrrty,has faster sound,better low end but is about twice the money.
You can find them used with plenty warranty left(I would
recommend nrb or later series)and buying them used you can
in theory close the price gap and still retain a longer warranty period.
The Pass designed Adcoms(I think they are 2 channel only)
are good bargains after lengthy break-ins,but much better suited to audio only,they are biased into class"A" up to ?
watts and generate lots of heat at idle.Most HT setups tend to squeeze everything into stands/cabinets.
Good thing is you could buy a bunch of 555II's cheap,they run cool have fan upgrade ability,and could be sold off easy
with less loss when and "if" you wanted to upgrade.Adcoms
are flexible but running them in mono is best used on sub-
woofer only ,they do not image well as mono pairs.
Good luck.

04/11/04...Yes, i am in general agreement with Adcom amps which are good amps, a little strident in top end. In response to Gmood1..the Denon POA-amps were called the poa-1500, 2200 which I own @ 200wpc very smooth and liquid in midrange, never sounding harsh. Also there is the 2400 and 2800 series. BTW, I have a my Denon POA-2200 up for auction on Ebay now...MINT Condition..tring to upgrade to the McCormack DNA 125 Amp.
tspec

My first amp was an Adcom 535 Mk. II which I have since given to my brother to use. However I feel that it is still an awesome value. It has never given me one once of trouble in the 10 years that I've owned it. The sound is a little on the harsh side but for $250 I can't complain about it. Its 60 watts/channel is adequate for most speakers. I used it with NHT 2.5i's with no problems at all.

I use the 555mkII in bridged mono(two of them).They each power one 15" sub apiece.They crush.Quiet,no fans and used about 400.00 each.My two cents.