Help Requested Regarding Adcom GFA-555; Audio Research D-111; Maggie MG-IIIA


I appreciate any help you may be able to give.  I am assisting my Sister-in-law with her late Uncle's Estate.  Unknown to her, he had quite a collection of stereo gear from the late 1960's through the early 1990's.  Some gems discovered include a Linn LP12, three Garrard tables, a few nice older Dual tables, AR speakers, several Audio Research pieces, and a beautiful Dynaco 70 with matching Preamp and Tuner.

 

His house is two states away from me, so I had given very detailed instructions on how to take pictures of each piece of gear, and to NOT MOVE ANYTHING if possible, especially speakers.  As the pictures were being texted to me, they said they had one last room to go through.  My eyes bugged out when they sent the pictures about 30 minutes later.  The room was like a time capsule from over 40 years ago.  It was her Uncle's main listening room, and when I saw the Maggie's I called them and told them not to move anything until they sent me all the pictures.  Unfortunately (as it always goes), one of my nieces had already unplugged some cables in order to get behind the speakers.

 

This is my long-winded lead in to what I'm trying to figure out.  The Uncle had the 2 Adcom GFA-555's and the ARC D-111 powering the Maggie's -- but I don't have a photo showing how he had them connected.  I don't have any experience with these Maggies, the Adcom's, or this ARC.  Based on research, this ARC D-111 was quite a beast for its time, and there don't seem to be a whole lot of them on the resale market.  One popular site I looked at showed only 7 units listed over the last 12 years.  I don't know if that's because people kept them forever, because the were used till they died, were too expensive to refurbish, or if there just weren't many sold.  I found that they were only made between 1981 and 1983, and the MSRP in 1981 was $3,950.

 

Does anybody have any experience with how he may have been running these amps with the MG-IIIA's?  I've asked my family to go back through all the pictures they took to see if somebody snapped a pic before the cables were unhooked.  I imagine he was using an Adcom for each speaker, but I don't know how he utilizing the ARC High Definition D-111.  I asked my niece if she was sure all 3 amps were hooked up to the Maggies, and she said she was certain they were -- she said the cables all went to the speakers, she just couldn't remember where they plugs went.

 

The members of this forum have always been so helpful to me in the past.  I have a pretty good knowledge of gear that I've acquired over my 60+ years in stereo, but I'm a newbie compared to most of you guys.  Especially with the amps that I'm asking about.  I've never seen a D-111 in my life, and very few GFA-555's.  I really would have enjoyed hearing the Uncle's system back when it was new -- I have no idea how much work will be involved to refurbish the gear.  I feel like the guy who caught the tiger by the tail...now what am I going to do??  wink

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Allen

allenf1963

I am going to take a stab at it. If you look at the connection panel for the Maggie 111a on the internet, you will see that there are separate inputs for the low frequencies and the high frequencies. Likewise, there are switches on the backs of the Adcoms to run them in mono at greater power output.

So speculation time, I think that the 555s were run in mono, one attached to the low frequency inputs on each speaker, and the D-111 was wired to the high frequency inputs on each speaker.

The reason that you have not encountered many D-111s is that only 20 were made.

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649680680-magnepan-magneplanar-mg3a-stereo-speakers-crossovers-cabling-manuals/images/2995883/

Thank you.  I was certain he was running the Adcom's as mono blocks, and suspected the D-111 was being used for running the highs / midst in some sort of bi-amped mode (if that's the right phrase).

 

I thought I had read a typo when researching the D-111....only 20 made??  Why?

 

Thanks again.

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