Thread: Just picked up an adcom

Nice find. Its one of the more reliable units, I've read. $60 is a steal!

God Adcom is great stuff, I still have a amp somewhere.....I think it was made in Canada....bulletproof.

Congratulations on your purchase, and welcome to the Land of Separates!!

EDIT: whoa, the new emoticons do suck! LOL

There must be a thread somewhere...but this conversation is gonna drive me crazy. (Congrats by the way...)

Soooo - you guys are telling me that this thing blows away all other receivers in terms of 2 channel? Why is that? Are all AVR's that drive all channels simply all inferior? I hope you are not telling me that. Anyway, I'd love to hear more about why this ADCOM, driving 2 channels is a revelation in sound compared to, say, my modest little Denon. And what you are then saying is that if you had seperates for all channels (ouch), the sound would be way, way better than a traditional AVR...

Originally Posted by caliberconst.

So I just picked up an adcom gfa 535. So I picked it up off craigslist for $60 from a guy that had probably at least $200,000 worth of gear spread out through 3 different rooms. Any way this thing is in absolutely mint condition, I mean it is nice!!!! He was selling it for a friend that used it in an office for multi room speakers. Got home and hooked it up and all I can say is WOW!!! 2ch music has never sounded so good in my house. I just can't believe the impact this has made, the sound is better in every way. The highs are soooo much clearer and waaaay cleaner, the mid bass is way tighter punchier and deeper, the sound is just way more accurate. I plan on picking up two more of these for my center and surrounds. Here is a good review on it. LINK

Here is a pick of the inside.

And some specs.
Description: Two-channel, solid-state amplifier. Output power: 60W into 8 ohms (17.8dBW). Input sensitivity: 970mV RMS. Input impedance: 100k ohms. Frequency response: 10Hz–20kHz, –0.25dB. S/N ratio: 110dB. Power consumption: 300W.
Dimensions: 3" H by 17" W by 11.25" D. Weight: 19.5 lbs.

Very nice find.
I do have to tell you that any good power amp will give you this same effect over a receiver.
I had the same WOW effect when I added a power amp to my first Pioneer receiver....from that point on...I decided that separates were the way for me.
Let the Pre/Pro do what it was designed to do...then send the signal to an amp that was designed to do only one thing...amplify the sound.
When an Amp has a beefer power that it does not share...it has way current to do what it has to......like "highs are soooo much clearer and waaaay cleaner, the mid bass is way tighter punchier and deeper, the sound is just way more accurate".

Just my $.02

Later
RayJr

For someone that has a Denon 1911, like me, would adding an AMP to use with the Denon do anything?

Originally Posted by elwaylite

For someone that has a Denon 1911, like me, would adding an AMP to use with the Denon do anything?

I believe adding an amp would always be a huge benefit. Integrated AVRs are required to do many things at once, and can't therefore excel in any one of them. Besides, the amp part of AVRs is usually the most neglected, so adding an amp should enable your AVR to focus its resources on what it does best (sound processing) and let the amp power your speakers (with a lot more current than your AVR could ever dream to be capable of delivering).

So ....would you need 3 of these to power a 5.1 system? 1 for the fronts, 1 for the rears, 1 for the center?

Originally Posted by mytime

So ....would you need 3 of these to power a 5.1 system?

If you're referring to caliberconst.'s purchase, the answer is yes: being a two-channel amp, you'd need three of them. Many users go 3+2 when they want a two-channel amp for their fronts in a multi-channel setup.

evil - please post in my new thread regarding separates. It would be helpful....at least to me. Same with Caliber...go post man.

Originally Posted by ev666il

If you're referring to caliberconst.'s purchase, the answer is yes: being a two-channel amp, you'd need three of them. Many users go 3+2 when they want a two-channel amp for their fronts in a multi-channel setup.

I'm going be honest here.. if you have some low quality AVR a separate amp might get you something..especially if you listening habits go towards reference volume levels...otherwise not so fast

My Denon A100 is not a low budget AVR and honestly at decently high volume levels I cannot tell the difference between the internal amps and the Krell Showcase that I used in the past and the Sunfire that I use now. My Sunfire is 400x7 and the Showcase was 125x7 (actually less watts then the Denon)

Well, after looking at prices to go pre/pro + amp, they better sound good. Cheapest I can find is a Marantz amp around $1200 and a Marantz pre/pro around $1700. Thats way to steep for someone that is not a huge audio guy.

The problem with pre/pro is that tend to lack some of the newest whiz/bang features that they lastest AVR's have... Sure I would love an Anthem prepro but for that kind of money it better be more then better sounding, but updated as well.

Originally Posted by spdntrxi

The problem with pre/pro is that tend to lack some of the newest whiz/bang features that they lastest AVR's have...

Depends on your perspective. Lacking HDMI is actually a plus from where I'm standing My audio pre/pro is supposed to be just that: an audio pre/pro. I expect it to sound good. Not to upscale my video, process my signal, apply DSPs and whatnot. Just plain, old, good sound quality and nothing else: something that just can't come from HDMI, which is as far from sound quality as we are from Arcturus LOL

Originally Posted by speedking

if you want to keep up with the arms race(HDMI versions) then it's not very wise to spend a lot on an AVR..as it will soon be outdated...which is another negative aspect of HDMI tech...

Definitely.