The culprit in my experience is the adcom preamp. the amp is actually not that bright, but the preamp is. I had a gfa 5400 and a gfp-555 II (preamp) and with revealing speakers (in my case, castles) the sound was horribly bright, but with a passive preamp the sound was pretty good. BEFORE you switch amps, switch preamps. The c-j is a great suggestion. Or even a creek passive (much cheaper)
Help me find a smooth solid-state amp?
I'm currently in the market for a *smooth* solid state amp (~100-150wpc into 8ohms) to mellow out an exceedingly bright system. I currently have an Adcom GFA-5400 with Adcom preamp and Soliloquy 5.0 monitors. Front end is a Pioneer DVD/CD player. Any suggestions as to what brands I should check out? Names off the top of my head include: Aragon, Classe, Bryston, and McCormack. I'm not too sure of the actual models I should try out. I'm also not averse to buying used items. Thanks. dd