How do Adcom power amps sound?



Hi,

My system is : PSB Stratus Mini, Cambrdige AZUR 540a and a Toshiba 3950 ( unmodded) in a 20x20 room with the speakers placed about 6 feet apart and mostly listened to in the close range.

If you arent familiar with my speakers they are a pretty tough load, 4ohm at 86db.

My amp only puts out 40-50 watts into 8ohm and 65 into 4ohm, as you can tell its having trouble powering my speakers, so im considering buying a power amp for them.

Im on a pretty tight budget , and the Adcom power amps seem to be priced right, so im considering something like the GFA-555 ( 200 wpc 8ohm and 325ohm).

Does anyone have any experiance with this unit, or similiar Adcom units? How do they sound, would it be an upgrade, power and quality wise over my current cambridge amp?

Id probabaly use the cambrdige as a pre- amp untill i can afford something better.
dave123456a1b3

Showing 2 responses by bufus

I have had an Adcom GFA-555 since about 1991.? Sometime around 2000, I bought a used GFA-5503 (3 channel MOSFET) and compared it to the 555. The 555 sounds pretty bad in comparison! The mosfet design is much better! I would not recommend the GFA-555 unless you were going to use it bridged mono for a subwoofer amplifier. It would be a bargain for that at about $325. However, I WOULD recommend the GFA-5500 (2 channel MOSFET), for the used price of about $450, as a bargain. Of course, if you are willing to spend more, the 5802 would be even better. But then for that much money, there are probably alot of other good choices. (BTW, there is one up for auction right now.)

It is funny how the GFA-555 got such rave reviews when it was on the market and it actually isn't that great! I'm pretty sure it was a Stereophile Class B recommended component. Of course, I still have mine on my rear speakers. It won't die! It is well built and dependable!!